by Nathaniel R. Geyer, DrPH, CPH, GISP
When I was younger my goal was to be a doctor to help people who are facing similar struggles to me. In July 2017, I achieved my goal and earned a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) degree from Walden University. Now I am focusing on the second more difficult goal to help people, facing similar struggles to me.
To the outside world, I appear to be an autism success story, because of achieving things that I set out to do. However, for every success there are 40 times more failures. For example, at Walden I had a 4.0 GPA, but struggled with the dissertation. I had gone through three committee chairs and was at the verge of being a drop-out or permanent ABD (all but dissertation) student.
I decided to change my major and dissolve my committee. It was a wise decision because I got a new chair and committee that was in concurrence and allowed me to finish in six months. Whereas, had I stuck with my original dissertation I would still be ABD, which is a fraught state of being for typical graduate students.
This experience shows that life can be unexpected and sometimes the best solution is to press the reset button and move on. Another story that sticks out to me was that I am willing to go outside the box and become an unsung hero, to people who do not have one.
When I was at a summer camp for people with disabilities, there was a camper who had a severe heart condition and was told by an administrator that he would never succeed. I befriended him and told the person that life is too short to let others control your life. I suggested to him about using your gifts and making realistic goals.
Two years later, when I was a high school graduate, I was his roommate and we talked about ways to better the world and I encouraged him to go to college. Years later I read his obituary online and his greatest achievement was earning his bachelor’s degree.
These two stories show that as educators it is important for us to be open-minded and promote a positive educational environment. As an adult with autism who has been involved in graduate education since 2005, in both brick-and-mortar and online environments, I found that there needs to be better communication between educators and students with special needs.
Too often adults with autism do not have any lifelong goals. I was fortunate to have a strong support network, who encouraged me to come up with goals at a young age.
PATC Personal Stories Collection 2021
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