Appeer Young Woman– Megan

Background

Megan joined our Monthly Teen Group after receiving her autism diagnosis in her late teens.  Joining the group helped Megan with her acceptance of being autistic.  She says it was the first place where she felt felt happy in her own skin and with that, she has developed into a strong and confident young lady who has been a great support to us with our Outreach Training to Schools and at the Behind the Mask Conference.  Megan is now at university and recently sent us this lovely email:

Update

Hi Jo and Kris,

Hope you're doing well. Wanted to let you know how uni has gone so far!

My most important update for you is that I've continued with my autistic advocacy work. I'm part of a society called Unite, which is similarly structured to Appeer - it's a club for anyone in the university who is autistic regardless of diagnosis, and we meet up once a week. I've also become part of the neurodiversity network and currently help run a daily online discussion called Auctober, where we discuss different aspects of our experiences as autistic people once a day. It's been great being able to continue building a community of like-minded people much like I did back home with Appeer. 

In addition, I've signed up for a volunteering project called Spectrwm, an afterschool club specifically for autistic children in the area. I haven't started volunteering yet, but I've completed some autism awareness training (actually delivered by autistic people too!!) and hope to start next week.

The university has been great with putting in accommodations and access arrangements for me and help was given within a week of my first meeting with disability support. I've disclosed to my personal tutor about my autism, and he was super understanding and offered to help where he can with presentations and essay writing. 

Overall, university has gone great so far and I think I've adapted to the big change better than I thought I would. My course is amazing, my flatmates are all so lovely (albeit very noisy) and it's mostly been pretty good weather so far - fingers crossed it'll stay like that for a little longer!

I wanted to thank you both (and your whole team of course!) for everything you've done for me since I started Appeer. I've been able to find my passion for advocacy, both for myself and for others, and my continued interest in working with young people. As a whole my self-confidence, time management and pride in my neurodiversity has been hugely improved, which I am hugely grateful for. Your continued support, activities and volunteering opportunities have been insanely helpful over the last year and have made the transition to university so much easier for me. 

I'll keep in touch going forward to let you know what else I get up to, and maybe pop in for a session when I'm home over the holidays if the timings are right. 

Thanks again for everything,

Megan