As a (largely) Western Autistic (I'm part-West Indian), I had a paradox in that I went to Japan when I was 21, yet I felt completely at home there. Okay, I know Japan is a collective society and my native Australia is individualist, but one thing that really made me comfortable in Japan is that people don't dress in an outlandish way. You see the typical salaryman going to work in a powder blue or white shirt, red tie with white thin stripes, and either a dark grey or navy blue suit. A businessman who wore a loud open-neck shirt would be seen as lacking credibility. I feel more comfortable dressing in reserved colors, such as black (you can wear black with anything), blue (not in April), green, a bit of red and white, cream or beige, and brown. I wear some pink as well.

I have long felt like I did not belong in Australia even though I was born there. I don't embrace the outdoor, sport-loving lifestyle, preferring to sit inside and read books.

I can remember having frequent disagreements with my brother when we went to visit my grandparents. They lived on acreage, and I just wanted to sit and talk to them, but no, HE wanted to tear around the backyard and I'd be SENT off with him. My grandparents didn't get to know my brother and I as individuals. One thing I remember my grandmother for is that she didn't see kids according to the gender binary. I remember one day playing with some dolls in a bedroom, and my brother wanted to play with cars or plastic guns. My grandmother told my brother that I was having great fun, and I was. If my father had been an only child and I one, too, and my grandparents house had been left to me, I would have said, if I'd had the money, the small room here is the writing/computer room, the room on the opposite side is the library, the room after that is the Japan room, which has art and artifacts from Japan, the main bedroom is still the main bedroom, and the thin room is something else. I would also have a Japanese garden with a deer scarer water feature.

I am vehemently against ABA as a therapy for autism, believing instead that autistic people must be free to be themselves.