Ron
My name is Ron.
About me
I work as a gardener at Funan Mall and a baker at Crunchy Teeth. I also help YoungStar to make greeting cards for sale. I did my NITEC in web application at ITE (East). I tried out some IT jobs at first, but they were not really my type.
I like being a gardener at Funan Mall because the garden is outside of the shopping mall. I can take the escalator to the level 7 Roof Garden. What I don’t like is people throwing litter around the garden and people smoking at the roof garden; also when too many people are crowding at the roof garden.
What I like about being a Crunchy Teeth baker is making friends with other people with autism and making cookies for customers. My favourite cookie I have baked is peanut butter cookie and orange crunch cookie. I hope that we can find more customers to buy our cookies.
My dreams
My childhood dreams were to become a chef, comics writer, soccer player and artist.
I am also passionate about global warming. I feel worried about the rising sea levels and the north and south pole ice caps melting.
So I don’t use the air-con and try to keep the lights off at home to save the environment. I hope more people can care about the environment.
School days
My favourite memories of my school days are going to Tampines Secondary School and ITE. My favourite thing to do is going to the library where I borrow books. Also, the teachers are helpful and kind due to my autism. I have good memories of my school Sports Day, getting high marks, and playing musical instruments. On sports day, I won some medals, some gold, some silver and a bronze. I learned to play drums, guitar and cymbals. Now I like playing the piano and I like to read books too. My favourite books are the Bookworm short stories.
My challenges
The difficulties I faced due to autism are that my speech is different to other students, being bullied, feeling nervous about the new school, being sick and afraid of the teachers. The bullies called me names, pushed me, making fun of me, misleading my speech, drawing on my class notes, and blamed me for things I didn’t do. They also asked me for money during recess. I felt quite nervous and worried that my parents will scold me, as they said they knew my mom’s and dad’s numbers. I was afraid they will call my mum and dad to say things that are not true about me. Luckily my teacher, my family and my special needs officer helped me to survive my school life.
My diagnosis
I had been diagnosed with autism when I was 3 years old. My mother sent me to a special needs centre, Rainbow Centre and Pathlight School (for early intervention).
I did not know about autism until Primary 5 when I found out when watching Channel News Asia. I felt surprised and confused that I have autism. Now I feel relaxed, calm and happy.
Aunty Suat (psychologist from Planet Learning Centre), my mother, Pathlight teachers, my friends, my cousin, and school classmates helped me to accept my autism symptoms.
I want people to know that prayer won’t make autism go away, and vaccines don’t cure autism or cause autism.
Autism isn’t a disease. People with autism can be independent, like delivering food to elderly people, baking at the bakery, doing art and craft, jogging and helping people with special needs.
To others with autism, I want to say don’t give up your dreams, don’t think about suicide due to your autism, do find help for your autism and never forget that you have friends and family to cheer you on.
The Future
My hope for the future is for people around the world to know about autism. I hope they can accept people with autism, employ them to do work and let them be independent.
