As part of my own personal growth, and in an effort to share what I perceive as one of the chief challenges that a neuo-atypical faces, I will chronicle one social situation in the present or past where I had difficulty understanding a situation or acted “awkwardly.” I use quotation marks here because any social interaction can foster an “awkward” moment, especially among children and young adults. However, those of us on the spectrum tend to give far more negative weight to our actions that others perceive or remember.
My mind grants me an encyclopedic knowledge of these miscues, and I have a crystal clear memory of thousands of social growing pains back to early childhood. I often relive these memories, solicited or not, experiencing the negative feelings that I have associated with a particular social interaction.
My goal is to describe the story briefly, explore my reaction to the situation, and then discuss the lesson I learned and how the perceived negative response has influenced my current behavior with others.
