Scoring All Over The Awesome Spectrum

(I have both ADHD and Asperger’s. Thankfully, both are relatively mild. I’m attending my friend’s son’s sixth birthday party. My friend has previously mentioned that he is worried his son might have ADHD and is planning on getting him tested. So as we’re watching the children play, I ask him if there’s been any reply yet. It turns out that his son does have ADHD, but is also on the autism spectrum. I ask him how they’re coping, and he responds with this:)

Friend: “The big thing is that I have to adjust what I picture for him. My mental image of the man he’d grow up to was, to be honest, a younger version of me. That’s not really in the cards now, and I have to accept that. So we started thinking of what we wanted for him, and we thought of you.”

Me: “Um, wow. Thanks.”

Friend: “You’ve got this stuff to deal with, but you never let it control you. You’re smart. You’re creative. So, yeah.”

(I’m not sure he even realized that he’d just given me the greatest compliment in my life!)