The Opposite of Normal, Andrew Boggan [brene brown rising strong .TXT] 📗

I knew instantly that when I hit adulthood, creative writing would be my inspiration for a career. I guess this is where being an Aspergerian works in my favor: my obsession with writing for film and television would hopefully one day make my dream into a reality. On days when it was raining outside, or school and work had gotten to hard to bare, the only excitement and enjoyment in my life was to sit at my desk with a cup of tea and begin writing.

On the day that I was given my typewriter, I started writing my first feature film script at 10pm and through sheer determination, I had it finished by sunrise the next day. There were so many other reasons why I enjoyed writing; it wasn’t just a chance to get away from the mental stress of school but I also had the opportunity to let the creative side of my life go anywhere in the world that I wanted it too. I guess because I lived in such a harsh realistic world, my ideas and perceptions of a world where anything could happen could take place at my desk and typewriter and it was only ever then that I knew that the world could be my oyster.

Over many years I had written a number of feature film scripts, plays, short stories and first draught novels, but I never had any of my work assessed, until now. I recently submitted my first feature film script to a producer on the Gold Coast, and I guess I will just have to sit back and wait and see what happens. I guess after trying a number of career paths I know which the best is for me, and that’s writing but on a realistic side, I’ve had to try working in a range of different jobs in order to see if I could succeed elsewhere. Although I have always questioned my potential and abilities, I know deep within myself that writing is what I was put on this earth to do. Writing is my chance to make people laugh, cry, question the world and attempt to change people’s thoughts and perceptions about various issues we are all faced with in this world. I guess because I’ve always had trouble doing this verbally and in a social setting, writing has been the only way I can do this.

When I first began to make that daunting move from my teenage years into adult hood, I contemplated various careers on a realistic level and thought long and hard about where I wanted my career to prosper. Although I had dreamed of nothing but writing books and film and television scripts, it certainly wasn’t a stable career nor was it one that could take off quickly; whilst at the same time I was faced with the challenge of where somebody would see my skills as highly valuable and sought after.

I thought about a number of career prospects towards the end of high school. In particular, studying to become a registered nurse was my ultimate aim. The thought of providing a high level of care and nurturing support to those in need was at the top of my list, however there had to be a way to overcome my crippling fear of vomiting. I examined other areas including how to become a commercial aviation pilot and an accountant, but I needed to have passed complex math’s and given the way my brain worked those career paths weren’t going to happen anytime after school. So I ended up going for Nursing and applying through the state’s tertiary admission centre.

In order to get accepted into your chosen fields of study at university back in the late 1990’s, you had to put down 6 possible course options with number 1 being your most sought after field of study. At number 1 I had enlisted for a Bachelor of Registered Nursing, number 2 was a Bachelor of Public Health, number 3 a Bachelor of Political Science and then 4, 5 and 6 were Diploma’s in Community Services with the prospect of obtaining credits for future university study. By the time the offers from the university had rolled out the only program I was accepted into was my 6th preference: Diploma of Community Services – Child Protection, Juvenile Justice and Statutory Supervision. Although the only option available to me was not directly into a nursing, I had seen this as a stepping point to obtain the valuable credits there were required to enter the Bachelor of Registered Nursing at Queensland University of Technology.

In the first year of my studies at Yeronga TAFE, I gained valuable knowledge about sociology, psychology, case management and child protection reform; little did I know that my only option available to me after high school would open many doors that I thought were never possible. After getting off to flying colors at TAFE I enlisted to take on more core subjects that would also give me a Diploma of Youth Work. I am still very proud to this day that I had completed both Diplomas’. Although I initially had taken this area of studying as a bridging course into Nursing, I began to learn and develop a very keen interest into the areas of autism and how other people, just like me were living with the condition on all different levels of their life stages. My chosen areas of study at TAFE opened up a whole new world where I discovered unknown interests and quickly learnt where in this world I could make a difference.

In July of 2002 I had successfully gained entry into the Bachelor of Social Science majoring in Child and Youth Development. Some of the core subjects at university were psychology/communication based subjects, and although at this stage of my life I didn’t possess the same level of interpersonal communication that someone should possess at the age of 20, I decided to study these subjects first only to learn to communicate better with others.

For the whole year I spent studying psychology and behavior therapy, there were many aspects of communication that I learnt where I could implement these techniques into my personal day to day life. The art of active listening always allows for people to open up and give answers with great depth rather than just a simple yes or no answer. So in my personal social life I began applying these active listening skills and my friends had certainly noticed a change in my communication patterns. Usually when I spoke about a particular subject it was always a one sided story but then all of a sudden I began listen to other people’s contributions and talking problems through rather than displaying emotions in the way a typical Aspergian would. I had discovered two possibilities by going to university and studying communication; I had either found a way to surpress the control of Asperger’s Syndrome or I’ve just learnt how to control it better to make interpersonal relationships work.

To this day I still don’t quite know why I never completed my Bachelor of Social Science, but I left full time study to commence full time work. I worked various temp jobs going from company to the next doing basic administration work with a combination of executive support, finance and human resources. Towards the end of that year I was offered a fantastic opportunity to work as the PA to the Managing Director for a major insurance company based in Brisbane. I was clearly told that I possessed great skills that would be required by the person to complete the job, and if everything went according to plan, the Managing Director would eventually train me up to take over his role at his retirement.

I worked very hard for Glenn every day. I managed every single appointment, taken care of all his mail, answered and screened all the telephone calls and had taken care of some light budget management for the office. I thought I was off to a flying start in the job by trying to use my initiative for everything and really thinking things through. I might have thought that I was on a roll however this was not the case. Glenn had pulled me into his office late Friday afternoon and asked “So, how do you think your going? It’s been a week since you’ve been here, do you think your doing okay” That was a pretty full on question and it was one that I wasn’t expecting to be thrown at me but I knew the answer immediately “Doing great and absolutely loving the job” I said to Glenn with a very confident smile. “Is that right” he replied while keeping his eyes on his desk twiddling with a pen on his desk. I knew something was about to happen but wasn’t quite sure.

Glenn had suddenly pulled off a long list of points he had written down on paper about my work performance. At the top of the paper I could see the word in big bold capitals “PERFORMANCE ISSUES”. From that moment on I knew what he was about to say wasn’t going to sound good. He started running through the list of things that were on the list. Everything you could possibly imagine was on that list from the radio being up too loud, taking phone messages incorrectly, and passing on the wrong information to clients, scheduling incorrect meetings, preparing the wrong meeting files and even leaving at 4.57pm instead of 5.00pm. On my first day I clearly don’t remember Glenn telling me these things. He could have but I certainly don’t remember. If an employer expects their staff to work productively, how can they terminate their employment based on week’s performance? I was still getting settled into the job and still learning all there was to know with the role. To this day I still don’t believe my contract was terminated for the right reasons, I believe it would have been because my communication methods might have come across somewhat different and strange yet I suffered the penalty for it.

I can still see Glenn sitting there in his expensive leather chair that reflected off the afternoon sun while he exercised his power in the company and dragged my confidence and self esteem straight out from underneath me.

That was only full time job I ever had in private enterprise. I made a snap decision that afternoon when walking to the pub that I would try and get into government the very next working day. The state government had an outstanding reputation for never sacking employees. They currently have, in conjunction with the Anti Discrimination laws the Public Sector Ethics Act that tries to encourage people with disabilities and minority groups to apply for employment into the Public Service. For me, there was no other alternative and that’s what I had to do.

I worked with a number of government departments in a temporary capacity. I stared off with the Department for Veteran’s Affairs processing the daily mail, filing and completion of the records management process. From there I was lucky enough to obtain a temporary contract as a public service employee on the government payroll for a 12 month administrative officer position. I started off performing the job at very exceptional level, having regular contact with my direct line manager I was always in a position to tell my boss any issues that I was having and she always had ways to suggest how I could do better in my job. In January of 2004 Jenny was successful in obtaining a different position and it was time for her to leave the Transport Department. Although it was somewhat disheartening to see her leave, I was looking forward to getting to know