His Life with Asperger's

            Once upon a time, in the magical world called Wisconsin, there lived a young boy named Julian. He was a fearless boy, full of imagination and wonder, and the energy to go on and bring the figments of his imagination to life. It wasn’t as easy as he thought though, and part of this was due to the fact that Julian was born with Asperger’s Syndrome.

            Asperger Syndrome is a form of autism, which affects how an individual communicates and socializes with others. Julian has trouble talking to others and asking for help. When I was younger, I would express my imagination with others, building things and creating another world where we made the rules and no one could tell us what to do. It wasn’t just me who was building this new nation; it was a few people all contributing their ideas to form one big idea. The way Julian’s mind works, he would rather work independently rather than in a group. If he didn’t know how to make something work, he would try to figure it out on his own rather than ask for help.

            Julian is quick. Not as in the “I-can-run-faster-than-you-way”, but in the “my-brain-fires-quicker-than-yours-way.” You ask him a question and almost instantly he will give you an answer. If you’re like me, you sit there and think about the question, hesitate before you give an answer. Julian isn’t like that- his reaction time is quicker. Sometimes I wish I was as fast answering homework questions as he is…things would get done a lot quicker, that’s for sure!

            I’ve known Julian for as long as he’s been alive: he is my cousin. I’ve been given the chance to witness how he has grown as an individual, and to learn that having a disorder isn’t the end of the world. Julian is eight years old and has already made more progress towards overcoming his asperger’s than any of us ever thought was possible. He is now a social individual who loves to learn and try to new things- at one point all we could do was dream that this would become reality. And now that it has, I’ve realized something: you don’t need to be perfect for people to care about you and to be able to do what you really want to do. If you set your mind to it, anything is possible- just ask Julian.

(400 words)