đź’ I am Zonkatron (Pedro Flores) and this is my story.
🍀When I was a child 1970’s autism was not a thing people knew about. My mom always said I was the “perfect” baby—unnervingly calm and quiet. While other kids were screaming for toys, I was perfectly happy sitting in a corner, staring at the way light filtered through a window. I wasn’t being difficult; I was just busy observing.
🍀By the time I could hold a brush, I wasn’t painting messy finger-paints. I was obsessed with realism. I would spend hours trying to get the exact reflection of a glass of water or the veins on a leaf. People called me a prodigy, but to me, I was just recording the truth of what I saw. I didn’t care about “style”; I cared about accuracy.
🍀But then, adolescence hit like a freight train. Suddenly, the world stopped being about shapes and colors and started being about people. And people, I quickly realized, were terrifyingly sophisticated. They had this secret code of “social cues” that everyone seemed to understand instinctively, but for me, it was like everyone was speaking a weird foreign language.
🍀I felt like I was standing behind a thick pane of glass. I could see my peers laughing, whispering, and dating, but I couldn’t feel the “vibe.” To survive, I retreated into the two things that never lied to me: mathematics and physics.
🍀Mathematics was my sanctuary. I poured every ounce of my soul into equations. While others were out at parties, I was exploring the laws of the universe. Numbers were my best friends because they were honest.
🍀However, the world didn’t see a “scientist in the making.” They saw a guy who was “socially aloof.” I heard it all: “He’s not very street smart,” or “He’s a bit slow on the uptake.” It hurt because I knew I was smart—I could solve complex calculus—but I couldn’t understand a simple joke.
🍀Sarcasm was my nightmare. If someone said, “Oh, great weather we’re having!” while it was pouring rain, I would spend five minutes trying to figure out why they liked the rain so much. I felt like I was missing a “social antenna.” I spent my twenties feeling like a failure, wondering why I couldn’t just get it.
Everything changed when I turned 33 when I accidentally picked up a book titled Congratulations! It’s Asperger’s Syndrome by Jen Birch
đź’ I read the first page. Then the second. By the time I hit the middle of the book, I realized the book is describing me. Every struggle, every weird habit, and every “failed” social interaction was right there in those pages. I wasn’t reading a book; I was reading my own life story.
đź’ I realized I wasn’t “stupid” or “broken.” I had Asperger’s. In that moment, the “socially aloof” label vanished. I realized I belonged to a group of people who see the world in high-definition. I thought of people like Isaac Newton—a man who changed the world because they were “obsessed” and “different.”
đź’ That day was my rebirth. I stopped trying to be a “normal” person and started being a gifted one. I realized that my brain is a precision instrument designed for logic and beauty, not for small talk and sarcasm.
đź’ I stand before you today not as someone who is missing something, but as someone who sees something most people miss. I’m not “street smart” but I am aware and wise. I am exactly who I’m supposed to be.
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