I've always been weird.

When I was a child, I always got in trouble for being too loud in almost any situation. I was almost always in trouble at school -- I couldn't be bothered with homework after I discovered science fiction and fantasy. In adolescence, I was continually late for everything. I was given a nickname "Sam the late" by a sixth grade teacher, which stuck.

My father's family is completely obsessed with team sports -- football, golf, basketball, etc. Unlike any of them, I'm so clumsy I have a hard time getting through a doorway without injuring a body part. I gravitated to individual sports -- gymnastics, running, skiing. It took me half my adult life to understand why none of those "counted".

I had a really hard time making friends. Moving around a lot didn't help, but I couldn't understand why my younger brother was the center of attention in every grade, wherever we were, while I was the perpetual outcast, and never got along with anyone.

At one point, I decided in middle school that the problem was that I didn't know how to communicate with anybody, my eyes were always looking at the floor instead of looking at someone's face, I stammered, I was always going on and on about some weird theory or facts I had read about. I pretty much drove anybody who tried to talk to me away. I didn't understand why, other than thinking I must be scared of talking, or I didn't know how to have a conversation. So I decided I would take up theater to get over the fear of looking people in the eye. That worked to get me able to address a crowd of 10 or a hundred, but it didn't really get me that many more friends, because I still didn't understand how to talk to 1 person!

It took me 10 years to get through college -- more like about 10 colleges. I finally graduated with a degree in English Literature. By the time I finished I was probably doing graduate level work.

At the same time I was finishing college, I was working at a startup as tech support -- a job that spanned filling the fridge with sodas, to debugging printer drivers and soldering circuit boards. I built my first computer network from a box of parts I found in a closet, and somehow found a career.

I've now been a computer network engineer for about 30 years, and I always wondered why I wasn't able to climb the ladder into management. I wondered why I wasn't able to hold onto a decent relationship. I wondered why I was depressed, anxious and frustrated all the time.

After a lot of self-examination, I finally went and got myself a neurological test, the result of which was a diagnosis of a learning impairment related to executive function disorder. From there, after a lot of research, I wondered if, instead of a bunch of the incorrect diagnoses I'd been given by various members of the counseling & psychiatric professions, I might have Asperger's Syndrome. I took an online test and Bam! I hit all the indicators. From there, I found the Austin Adult Aspies Meetup Group and that's made a huge difference in my life.

Now I know there are others like me, I'm not alone, and we share a remarkable number of experiences.