Presume Intellect

I’ve come to find that people who aren’t very familiar with Autism don’t understand the level of intelligence that comes along with it. I realize that it’s hard to fully understand it if you haven’t experienced it or witnessed it first hand. Even some of my family members (cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.) who aren’t around Eric that often are still surprised by some of the things he’s capable of doing.

About ten years ago, maybe longer, my family and I were at my grandparents’ house for dinner and Eric was in the living room watching a movie. For whatever reason, the television malfunctioned and Eric’s movie stopped playing.

My uncle and my grandfather made multiple failing attempts to fix the T.V. by unplugging this and restarting that and a bunch of other remedies that were proven ineffective. The two of them then rummaged through the basement for whatever tools they thought would do the trick.

Meanwhile, Eric became impatient with their methods of fixing the T.V. so he took matters into his own hands. Sure enough, with the press of a button or two, the television was working again.

Everyone was extremely impressed with Eric. Why shouldn’t they be? He fixed the television in a matter of seconds when two grown men, who have had experience fixing household appliances, couldn’t do it.

To this day, our family and friends are still so amazed when they see Eric in action.  If they were around him all the time, they’d live in amazement. He really is a special guy.