Sheila Schoonmaker's Maiden Blog

I had been thinking about going to a GRASP¹ meeting for over a couple of years, but didn’t actually pray about God’s will on the matter until just recently. I was surprised by many things, starting with actually attending. Because of my sensitivity towards excess noise, smells, and artificial lights, New York City alone will give me a headache. Add to that, being with a group of strangers for a couple of hours (especially having to talk with everyone else listening), is definitely outside of my comfort zone.

The last time I was in New York City was between 2-3 decades ago. Yesterday’s trip was my third time for being in that city in my life. Not surprisingly, I was beyond sensory overload by the time the GRASP meeting was over. Besides a headache, the usually outcome for me is that my mind starts to bog down from overload. I don’t appear much different from my normal self on the outside, but inside my head I increasingly feel like I’m shutting down… struggling to keep up with what’s going on around me.

Was it worth it for me to go? Yes. It was an indescribable experience to be among so many of my own kind. I’m still in WOW mode. Needless to say, I hardly slept at all after getting home far past midnight. I cannot stop thinking about what it was like to be with so many whom I could relate with and who could relate with me. I will never look at the neurotypical world again the same way.

I sort of felt that same way the first time I went to a meeting in my local area for adult Aspies in the early part of 2007. I thought that was an amazing experience too, especially since it was new to me. I got used to being around the other Aspie members in our little group that has ranged between 4 to 16 attending per meeting (possibly around 30 have attended at least once). To be in a room with around 40 Aspies² left quite an impression I’ll probably never forget!

It’s not so much the quantity of Aspies in one place, but rather the unique and impressive qualities of each individual that struck me as awesome.

Now I really can see how easy it is for neurotypicals to have their way with Aspies and why most will never want to accept us the way we are. There’s probably a lot more I could say, but not in this post today. It’s just the way that it is for a firm fermentor.

¹GRASP is The Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership. The meeting I attended last night was located in Manhattan at 339 West 24th Street, New York, NY. There were around 40 Aspies at that meeting. Its main office is located at 666 Broadway, Suite 830, New York, NY 10012.

²Most Aspies don’t seem to come to most meetings, so if every Aspie member showed up the same night, it would probably be quite a big crowd. I can’t speak for GRASP, but I can say the local group I attend has many members that show up only about one-quarter of the time throughout the year. There are only a few who are there for almost every meeting.