I am proud to be autistic, too. I remember, when I was 11, whenever we had to go and see a colleague of my father's, spending the afternoon reading encyclopedias to calm myself (their son used to drive my sensory issues to overload). I used to read about famous people and things that they did. I remember, when we were going to be doing a unit on Chinese history, if we were going to learn about Confucius, as I had read about him before the class had. I developed a special interest in Japanese and Chinese cultures.