Part One is here.

What are some of the things you want, or need, to say to other people, but can't?

Jen: Don't try to cajole me into an activity once I've said no. I may *want* to do it, I may express a wish that I were able to do it, but for whatever reason than cannot be overcome, I can't do it. I feel angry and sad because I am missing something "fun", and I am protecting myself from the inevitable bad time I will experience if I do take part. Just accept that I said no and respect that things you find enjoyable are not always things I find enjoyable.

Elizabeth:  I would like to say: I will never understand your love of watching and discussing television programs just as much as you will never understand my desire to only have conversations with purpose. In other words, I couldn't give a rats ass what happened on Dancing with the stars, but I AM waiting for you to shut up long enough for me to ask where you left my stapler.

Click here to continue.

Alastair: I want to tell people that i am a gifted mathematician by my own merit. I am not merely a product of my medical history.

Jacob:  I only have a few items to say:

The universe itself is autistic, why else would everything from massive planets to tiny electrons spin?

Just because I don't talk much, doesn't mean I'm shy, it just means I'm not interested

If people think I'm strange, just imagine what I think of people

Remember: autistic, not stupid. I hear and understand more than most give me credit for

Three things to remember about autistic people: we're smart, we're monotoned and we're great in bed.....Well that's not all true; we're not all monotoned.

We have a sense of humor just like everyone else (see above)

I can and will offend you at some point. Just remember that the questions and opinions are academic and we'll get along fine

yes I started reading neoclassic Italian literature when I was 13, yes I have 4 languages under my belt, yes I love science and math and yes I will talk endlessly about all of these things; I don't take offense when you tell me to stop.

Yes I was military and yes I was a police officer. I don't know why this is hard to believe, but if you insist on asking, then I will insist you request a copy of my DD-214 from the VA. We can do things everyone else can (sometimes better), give us a little more credit

Sarcasm might be taken literally, be careful what you exaggerate about.

Finally: My former roommates called me "Google" for a reason, but that does not mean it should be the only reason to talk to me. You might actually find that I am so awesome that you won't be able to stop conversing with me.

What other people think of me is none of my business.

Also: We can love just like anyone else. Sure it's not romantic to have to tell me when hugs are a good idea and make gifting suggestions and such, but since when do relationships operate like a bank?

Heidi: When I tell you something interesting and exciting I've noticed about myself, it hurts when you say "Oh, that's not true, don't put yourself down!"

When I have a problem, don't rush to say, "Oh, everyone does that, that's totally normal". Chances are what I'm talking about isn't the same thing, and I truly believe many suicides result from people being told something is "normal" that isn't.

Just because you've heard autism described as a bad thing, doesn't make it so. I don't want to be like other people, I don't want to seem arrogant but I really think the world would be a better place with more like me---less gossiping and judgement!

Being dragged into conversation doesn't make me feel accepted, it makes me go home and spend hours rocking and biting myself till I calm down.

As sorry as you might feel for me staring quietly at patterns on a carpet while others chatter away, I feel just as sorry for you, unable to see how wonderously beautiful ordinary things are while you desperately try to fill in silence that doesn't need filling. I don't see how I'm the one who's "empty" here.

If it is okay for you to watch pretend people on a screen, it is okay for me to play with toys!

Emily: I wish I could express to people that just because they know one other person with Asperger's doesn't mean they know everyone with Asperger's. I love the people in my theatre group for being so nice and accepting and supportive, but... telling me I don't seem anything like the son of one of our members who has AS doesn't make me feel neurotypical.

I love the way my mind works; I love how sound is such an integral part of my existence and I love how good I am with the piano and with grammar and spelling and all that. (Aside from that run-on sentence I just wrote.)

Asking me how I can stand to be tattooed and pierced if I can't stand to be touched really isn't going to win anyone any brownie points with me. For the 8 millionth time, it isn't the same. Do you like getting blood drawn or getting a vaccination? Would you consider either of those to be anything like holding someone's hand?

No? Then why do you assume I consider them to be alike?

Telling me that certain things HAVE to be true or CANNOT be true isn't going to win you my support, either.

Telling me I MUST be learning-disabled and then condescending to me by assuming it's a reading-based LD and taking extra time to read something to me (and then being astonished when I speak like a dictionary) isn't going to change the fact that I can process four different languages (English, French, German, and Na'vi) but I can't remember which side is left and which side is right.

I have Dyscalculia, which is a math-based LD. I can read better than you can. I read Anna Karenina when I was 10, and I understood it perfectly. Try Googling Tolstoy as a neurotypical adult. Go ahead; I'll wait.

Yeah, I read that at ten years old. Then I took a test over it for the Accelerated Reading program and scored perfectly.

Telling me that the sound of glass on glass, ceramic on ceramic, and glass on ceramic can't possibly hurt me as badly as I claim is the fastest way to get stabbed with a plastic fork. I did that to a girl in high school. She was teasing me by clinking two glasses together. I asked her to stop, she didn't, I stabbed her arm with a fork, and then I got detention.

It hurts me worse than I can describe, which is saying something quite extraordinary. I wish just your saying it can't hurt that badly made it NOT hurt that badly, but unfortunately it doesn't change a thing. Nails on a chalkboard doesn't bother me in the slightest, but clink a plate and a bowl together and I literally drop what I'm doing to hold my palms over my ears, as "normal" people do when someone scratches a chalkboard.

I just wish I could tell people not to assume anything. And I wish they'd do it.

Click here to continue to Part Three.