What a week of work experience taught me about my future

Hi everyone. Quick word of introduction; I’m Ella, I’ve just turned sixteen, have just completed my GCSEs and look forward to the new challenge of AS levels (it’s a weird Welsh thing, basically baby A-levels which you do in year 12), and most importantly for this context, I am autistic. I was diagnosed at 11, and at the time pretty much had no understanding of autism. All I knew was that in my year 6 class there was a boy, who we’ll call X for the sake of privacy. X had a teaching assistant, talked about football incessantly and was pretty generally disliked by all the boys for reasons still unbeknownst to me. X was also autistic. I was pretty much the opposite of X, he represented everything that primary school me opposed. He was naughty, I followed the rules like my life depended on it.

He liked football. Me, on the other hand, avoided sport at all costs. I treated PE as one might treat an infectious disease. And football is a sport I hold in particularly low regard. To young me, football was beer and loud chants and big crowds. Basically my worst nightmare. So how could X and I both be autistic.

That’s when I started learning about the ‘spectrum’. Now, I don’t like to use the word ‘spectrum’. To me, it gives the idea that some people have more ‘severe’ autism, which just isn’t true. Everyone who has autism is autistic, there are no levels to it. What was different about me and X wasn’t that we were on different ends of the ‘spectrum’, but rather that we were impacted in different ways. Take hyperfixations for example. Hyperfixations and autism go hand in hand. Whilst everyone with autism is different, it’s safe to say that the majority of autistics have these hyperfixations. For me, it was and will always be books. For X, it was football. I once heard a brilliant analogy of autism, comparing it to a colour wheel. Each colour represents different qualities associated with autism; social anxiety, sensory issues, and hyperfixations. Most autistic people carry all the traits, but to varying degrees and in varying ways. And so, through research and my own life experiences, I have begun to develop a greater understanding of autism. I am a very different person now than I was when I was first diagnosed, although lots of my defining features remain; my trademark ginger hair, my love of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, my ability to devour book after book after book.

Anyway, I’ve been rambling, but that’s a bit about me and my perception of autism. What the subject of this post actually is, is the work experience I’ve just completed. I am a very academic person. I’ve always been a perfectionist, always wanted to do the best, be the best. So when it came to picking my A-levels, I wanted to choose the hardest ones, just to prove that I could. I was told the two hardest subjects were chemistry and further maths. I talked to both of my teachers, and both of them said the same thing. I could definitely do them, but only if I was genuinely interested. Without passion for the subject, the two years would feel like a lifetime of dull and difficult work. And I realised that actually, I don’t love chemistry, and whilst I’m very partial to algebra, and never say no to a bit of trigonometry, my real passion isn’t maths either. Still, I felt obliged to take the ‘academic’ subjects, and was considering engineering as a career, as to me that screams ‘successful’. But, before making any big life decisions, I decided to do some work experience.

I wasn’t sure who to reach out to, but work experience with AGN was mentioned during one of the Youth Advisory Board meetings, and I thought why not? Everyone at AGN is so friendly and lovely, and surely they’d be accommodating. So I sent off an email, and entrusted my fate with the brilliant Cath, volunteer lead at AGN. After a brief Zoom where I talked about what interested me, Cath put me in touch with the lovely Charlie, fundraiser extraordinaire.

After a Zoom meeting where Charlie asked me a lot of seemingly random questions, the brilliant Charlie had somehow created a list of tasks, all perfectly suited to me. The document she put together was thorough, answering any questions I could possibly have, and, more importantly, was full of heart, dotted with gentle messages of support, reassurance, and encouragement. The tasks were varied, each with their own challenges and advantages, and each broken down into lists by Charlie, making the tasks feel a lot more doable. This past

week, I have written letters, researched, made posters and spreadsheets, had a lot of fun, and learnt a lot about the world of work.

Before this week, I felt a lot of pressure to enter a traditional career, e.g. doctor, lawyer, engineer, etc. Just from this week though, I’ve learned that the world of work is a lot bigger than that tiny list. Charlie’s job as a fundraiser means day in, day out she raises money to allow this brilliant charity to continue its work. She is essentially paid to help people; how cool is that! Charity fundraising work isn’t even something I knew existed, and now it’s a career path I’d strongly consider following. I’ve found in school, there’s a lot of pressure to choose a career right now, a stable and established career, complete with a very expensive degree. What this week has shown me is that actually there are so many opportunities out there, outside of traditional career paths, that are equally as valuable. Success isn’t a fancy degree or a six-figure salary; it’s self-improvement, working hard, and achieving something you’re proud of, whatever that achievement is.

What I hope I have got across in this post is that you should do what you’re passionate about, and find a job that suits you, instead of bending and contorting your brilliant self to conform with the expectations of traditional careers or office jobs. Everyone has their own individual value, and can contribute something entirely authentic and unique. So don’t sell yourself short, be proud of your achievements, explore all avenues before settling on one career, and most importantly, do what you love.