I could relate so much! I struggled with mathematics at school, but I did well in English, Japanese and History. I finally got some tutoring in math, and what I needed was a teacher who understood my learning profile. My Year Seven teacher told me to learn my tables, now, that's all well and good, but your times tables won't help you with trigonometry, for example. I could manage trigonometry because it was a series of equations.

I have had people sneer at me about having "useless degrees" but what people don't understand is, an arts degree (or science) can give you something general, but it can also allow to to pursue a special interest. My father said to me, once, "But knowing how much Tojo weighed isn't relevant in the day to day world." It may not be, but a special interest of mine is Japanese and Japanese history. I became a little distraught last week, when my optometrist said that I had the precursor to a cataract in my right eye. She said that I could have cataracts for many years before I needed surgery, and I should leave it until I couldn't see at all well before surgery. Why was I distraught? Well, my glasses frames are made in Japan, and I like having two Japanese things on me at all times. I say to people, if my mother had been born in Japan to an Australian father and a Japanese mother, and I had the same father, it would be different, as the Japanese would be IN me, not on me.

I HATE the expression, "It's not rocket science, is it?" Rocket science is easy to a rocket scientist. I struggle to do simple things and with some of my quirks, my father can't understand why I use this item or that item or want a particular pen, for example, to do a task, rather than the first one at hand.

It's all part of my autism.