My Short Time in the Autistic Community

If you had told me a year ago that I would be working with people with disabilities as my job, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. Even though I have always wanted to work in the medical field, I always pictured myself working in a hospital as a nurse in some way. When that became clear it wasn’t going to work out, I gave up on that dream for a while. For a few years, I stopped pursuing that dream and started regular 9-5 jobs that I hoped I could be happy in. For a few years, I did okay. Until I lost the job that I was actually not hating.

It was then that I started to reevaluate what I wanted to do and tried to find a new career. I got unemployment, which gave me a little more time to focus on finding what I truly wanted to do without having to worry about the stress of bills. That’s not to say it wasn’t stressful, because it truly was a stressful time, but I wanted to take a chance to finally focus and find myself a career I could be happy doing for the foreseeable future.

I tried a few things, and nothing seemed to stick. I tried to get into selling insurance, even going as far as to take the test and get my license, but I found the company I was with to be very sleazy and seemed to focus more on making a buck over helping the individual needs of the client. After that, I tried to start insurance at another company a friend was at, promising it wouldn’t be like the old company. At first, it didn’t seem like it was, but it quickly showed its true colors. While the first company proved to be sleazy right off the bat, the second company hid behind the façade that it was nothing like the first one, until it became clear that that company was no better than the other.

After that, I got a job working in a warehouse of a family-owned alternative company. Having worked for a small company before, I got excited thinking this would be the same. It almost immediately became clear that it in fact was nothing like the other company. Instead of being an understanding owner, they were harsh and unrelenting on “their way or the highway”. Unsurprisingly, it became the highway, and I was fired. I refuse to be pushed around and will often question why I am being told to do things that don’t make sense. They expected me to roll over and do what they say and be a good little soldier, and I have reached the point in my life where I am not going to stay at a place where I am disrespected and treated poorly.

Around this time, I started thinking about my prior dream. How can I get into the medical field when I don’t have the grades needed to make it into the program? Is there any other way around this stupid rule to get into the field without having to do 2 years of school to be a nurse? In my research, I found an academy that has a 1-month long CAN program, with the guarantee of having a job when you are done with the course. Only a month? I can do that no problem! And to have guaranteed employment when I’m done? Sweet deal! Unfortunately, that didn’t pan out either. I got an interview and was so beyond excited! They had the call scheduled for 11 am, and I couldn’t sleep with excitement. Time went by, and no call was received. Hmm, maybe my calls are silenced? No, everything seems to be working. Finally, at 3:30 pm, they gave me a call. At that point, I had already accepted another job, and expressed my disappointment in them not calling me anywhere near my scheduled call time. That was a few months ago, and it still stung. But I wanted to try and see if I could get in again. So, I reapplied. After the call with the director, they said they’ll put my name and resume to facilities in the area, and if they wanted to talk to me, they would let her know and give me a call. 4 days went by, and no call was ever given. Dejected yet again, I figured that was the universe telling me that this was not the career path for me. I began looking for something else.

After this place didn’t work, I found a job in a vault, processing deposits that our clients bring in. I didn’t hate that job; in fact, it was pretty easy, and I didn’t mind some of my coworkers. However, the thing that I could not stand was the hours. They were never regular. You could expect to work at least 10 hours a day every single shift. It sucked. Never truly knowing when you would be leaving, and never really getting a chance to sit. It was constant standing and standing in one place on top of it. I can stand all day, that’s not the problem. The problem became when I could not move around during my shift. Not to mention some of my coworkers were really starting to get on my nerves. I couldn’t take it anymore. But I took my time finding something to do, since I at least already had a job that I wasn’t in fear of being fired from. I started looking online and finding what I could do that would make me happy. In my brain, I kept going back to the idea of getting into the nursing program. The CNA program was no longer an option as I couldn’t take the month off of no pay. Not to mention my chances of getting in were probably slim as I had tried so many times in the past to no avail. Instead, I started looking at being a PCA. A step under a CNA, it didn’t require a license and had more restrictions on what you can and cannot do with patients. Most facilities were hiring with the requirement of getting your full CNA license within a few months of working there. That way, I can work full time and get hands-on training to prepare you for the exam.

As you can imagine, that didn’t pan out well either. The center I was supposed to start at ghosted me, after I had already left my old job and started orientation with the new job. Panicking, I knew I needed to find something else quick. But I really didn’t want to give up my dream of busting into the medical field. It was here I found Julia. Julia, as noted in the job description, is a 25-year-old woman with autism. Moreover, she is non-speaking. I am familiar with autism, and had some experience, but not to this capacity. The more I read the description, the more intrigued I became. I put in the application and hoped for the best. By the end of the night, I had a request from her mother for a phone interview. In talking to her mom more, I became hopeful that this could be a career I could be passionate in and stay in for a long time.

Until I interviewed with Julia, I had never heard of a letterboard. I mean, have you heard of one before I just mentioned it? No? That makes sense. Most people haven’t heard of it and most autistic families don’t even know it exists either. Although it has been around for a very long time, it isn’t very mainstream. What is a letterboard? Well, a letterboard is exactly that, a board with letters on it. Usually a laminated sheet, it has all 26 letters on it in alphabetical order. From there, the person can point and spell out what word, sentence, phrase, thought, etc, that they are trying to say. It is really fantastic to watch. They are able to convey whole thoughts and paragraphs on this little board. It may take a little bit longer than you and I speaking, but it is worth the wait. Getting to know these people through these boards is truly an amazing thing. Not only that, but it also shows the world that people with autism are hyper intelligent humans, whereas in the past they are portrayed as so mentally delayed they are almost unable to function.

Now, working with Julia is not all rainbows and butterflies. Some days are hard. Learning how to communicate with her on a letterboard is hard. But it is fun work, and the great moments make it all worth it. My main job with Julia is working on her independence of tasks, so she can one day live truly alone and not have to have an aid with her 24/7. This means showering, hygiene, getting dressed, making lunch, and other daily tasks are what we focus on. For the most part Julia is great with it. If you have worked closely with someone with Autism, you will know that they need a lot of prompting to be able to get their body to follow the instructions in their brain. It can be difficult, as they know what they are supposed to do, and it can be frustrating when your body doesn’t want to listen to it. Imagine you want to go grab your cup to get a drink of water. In your brain, you think “Oh, I need more water” and immediately grab your cup and drink. For people like Julia, she will say in her brain “Oh I need a drink” and it will be a 10-minute process to get her arm to move to pick up the cup. “Pick up the cup Julia, pick up the cup, pick up the cup, pick up the cup” over and over in her brain until she gets it on her own or someone else verbally commands her. “Pick up the cup Julia” I say while tapping her arm. Almost immediately, she picks up the cup and starts drinking.

If that seems frustrating for you, imagine how frustrating it is for them. They deal with this every single day with no breaks. You are at constant war with your body to do what it wants you to do. Working with people with Autism is no easy task, but the rewards you get are so worth it. Julia is one of the sweetest people I have met, and I am so lucky to have met her when I did. She is such a positive ray of light; it makes me happy to go to work and see her and help her as much as I can. Not to mention, she is one of the smartest people I know. You can tell her something once and it will be committed to memory instantly. Show her a picture, she will know exactly what’s happening, even if she only sees it for a second. It truly is a sight to behold. Ask her anything and she can give a detailed answer in no time. Julia loves to learn. Anytime we can sit and watch a documentary or read an article about science or history, she is all for it. Not to mention they are constantly taking in information from everyone and everything around them and can tell you exactly what was going on even if we have no idea.

In my short time of working within this great community, I have learned so much about kindness and inclusivity. Now, it’s not like I was ever rude and uninviting to people with autism in the past, but I also didn’t really know what to do with them as well. Here, I have learned I can treat them just like any other neurotypical human I come across. It is something that has opened my eyes and made me realize how excluding the typical world can be. The world is not built for people that are neurodivergent, and that is something that needs to change. I am hoping if everyone starts to look more into this community, people will find the same thing out that I did. These people are the greatest people I have ever met, and I can learn so much from them just as much as they can learn from me. I have never met a more open, friendlier group of people than when I started working in this community. They love life and have such a great time despite all they have to deal with.

In talking about kindness and inclusivity, I wish more of that was going around nowadays. So often you see people so quick to judge and cast people out because they seem different or don’t match what you think people should act like. I hope people will begin to welcome people of all kinds into their lives and into their communities. People with autism are just like you and I. They like to go out, drink, have fun, and be with their friends. They do all the same things we do, and you would be so lucky to have them in your circle. Yes, it might take some time to be able to learn to communicate with them, but didn’t it take a while for you yourself to learn how to communicate when you were a young child? Of course! Nothing happens immediately, and although it can be difficult, it is so worth it. I mean, a few weeks of training and work to be able to communicate with another human being. Is that really too much to ask?