Finding friends is so, so, so hard for me, don’t talk to me about having a relationship.
“Connection is what moves this world forward. Connection is a profound human experience.”
In fact, in my lifetime I’ve only really had about 2 or 3 close friends, whilst I was at school I had a school friend called Chris, he was close to me but as we’ve got older it’s become harder to harder to stay connected. and relate to each other. I think connection is key to making new friends especially is you have autism/ high functioning autism/ Aspergers.
So, what’s the connection?
See, for me to make friends I need a connection with them, they need to have a similar interest to me, for example I got on with my school friend Chris because he liked football and so did I. My next friend was someone who lived next door to me called Robby, I used to walk to school with him. I got on with him because he liked playing video games and so did I, we used to go out and play outside, yes go outside and play. I remember taking our push bikes down to a supermarket at 4.00pm on a Sunday and playing imaginary Formula One races.
My last and the latest of all my friends is a group of friends I made during the coronavirus lockdowns. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, how did I make friends whilst being locked down, shouldn’t I have stayed at home. Well, the truth is I couldn’t have stayed at home and these friends supported me throughout the lockdown. There’s Kirsty, Heather, Alex, Richard, Ian and a few others to name a few. My bestie though out of the whole group is Kirsty though, we get on so well as we both have autism. I won’t put a picture up of me and her as I don’t want her to get stage fright so I just leave these two stick people here.
Me and Kirsty always Snapchat each other, now I’m working though it’s so difficult to stay in touch with her. I miss her so much but we try and catch up on a regular basis, for instance we go on day trips to local palaces and stuff like that. If I have to bring back one my best memories with Kirsty, I’d say it was the time she dressed me up as a traffic cone as I wore a bright orange jacket. See, that’s the humour we both connected with.
Anyway, if I have look back on my friendships, I’d say I’ve done well as a person with autism and I’m sure I’ll make even more friends in years to come.
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