I have changed a great deal over the years more than most people ever will in an entire lifetime. When I was 2 I lost what little language I had and began to have violent tempter tantrums. I was diagnosed with Autism and the doctor said I would never learn to talk, would never get an IQ past 50 and could turn into a vegetable at any time. Thanks to early intervention and, auditory integration and speech and language therapies I regained my language at age 5 and was gradually mainstreamed into regular ed with me attending regular ed full time in 4th grade with some supports. By then I started to blossom academically and had some friends though at the time personality wise I was a bit of a mix between Twilight Sparkle with a little bit of Fluttershy mixed in I was shy, socially awkward yet extremely intelligent and well read but was doing quite well.

 

In middle school things changed and not all of them were good, my grandmother died unexpectedly which caused me to spiral into severe depression to the point where I contemplated suicide and to fly into unprovoked periods of extreme rage. I still had friends but it seemed like everyone went from "I want to be your friend" to "get the hell away from me you freak." In good news though I still did well academically and even made the honor roll and later took honors and ap classes in high school. My teenage years were well, very awkward learning how to control my aheam "urges" wasn't exactly easy and learning what is and isn't appropriate to talk about and when was also a challenge for me.

 

I was also a bit of a social outcast and was bullied albeit not physically but emotional bullying can be just as bad and in some cases even worse and in desperation to make it stop I became no better than them and used threats, intimidation and is some cases even violence to get what I wanted. Throughout high school I teetered dangerously close to the edge of being expelled from school or being imprisoned or institutionalized due to my struggles to keep my inner monster at bay. Thankfully I had many outlets at the time including being the piano player in the school jazz band which along with therapy helped prevent that from happening.

 

As I got older and got more and more confident and stopped caring what others thought about me my inner Applejack crept in and has stayed with me ever since. In high school I also took an interest in politics due to my opposition to the Iraq war and one of the first things I did when I turned 18 was to vote in my first election which was the 2004 presidential election. At the time though I knew the democrats were not perfect I supported as the lesser evil and continued to do so until I got fed up and voted for "none of the above" in 2008 and for Ron Paul in the primary in 2012 and Gary Johnson in the 2012 general election.

 

I eventually got control over my anger and graduated high school with a 3.8 GPA, attended classes off an on at my local community college and have successfully held down a job at this grocery store I work at for 5 years and received a promotion within less than a year of my employment. I currently have plans to become an author and write about my experiences living with Autism so I can move on with my life and help others like myself.

Source: Ways in Which You Have Changed