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At the time I started school I remember that people appeared to be strange moving noisy 'objects'.
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At 7 years old, the children I called my friends were those that I could boss around. It was not 'friendship' by the normal definition of the word.
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At 11 years old, when I moved into secondary school education my social skills were a long way behind. I had no friends.
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At 13 years old, I wondered why my peer group were so different. Many things which were important to them seemed irrelevant to me; parties, clothes fashion, friends...
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At 16 years old I still had not realised that other people had 'thoughts' and 'feelings'.
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Having achieved passes in 6 GCSE subjects I went to do an Apprenticeship in Electronic Engineering. I could barely communicate with my peer group - there were so different. It was rather like sending a young child out to work among adults.
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At 20 years old, I attained an HNC in Electronic Engineering with distinctions in every subject and also achieved the highest marks on the course. When I went to university still I had very little idea of how to communicate and spent most of my time alone. Which was usual for me.
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By the age of 25 years old I was beginning to comprehend a little bit more about people - with the help of some people who eventually became my first real friends life suddenly began to have new dimensions.
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Now have 3 real friends - I would not know what to do without them! Mostly I would not swap them for anything else in the world but sometimes when things are not so good I wish that I could return to my childhood bliss where there were no people only objects and references.
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In my late twenties I started working for a multinational company designing web pages. I quickly progressed to writing computer programs, running servers. My favourite activity was problem solving. Despite starting with no qualifications in IT within a few years I was a Senior Systems Analyst
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I now have a Masters Degree in 'Physics with Cosmology'. I am presently working towards a PhD and living away from home. I still need some
support with everyday things but mostly I get by.
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