Diary of an Autistic Boy

The Importance Of Doing Something You Enjoy

I apologise for the nearly 5 month gap however I hope that this helps you to understand why that may have been.

Recently I was presented with a dilemma. It was a dilemma in which I had 2 options that where very different and would had led me down 2 different paths in life. It may not have felt like that big of a deal at the time however looking back on it, it was something that was a one of the biggest decisions I have made so far in my life. However to understand the true size and nature of the decision, you will need to know the events which created the dilemma.

Over the first lockdown the uncertainty and the amount of speculation that surrounded it created a lot of anxiety for me. It effected me quite negatively for more than one reason. I believe it was the original speculation that started the chain of events that led up to my dilemma. It was the run up to the announcement of the lockdown that effected me the most as I was so uncertain of whether I would still be attending college or not, that for the 3 days before it was announced I was unable to attend college because of the levels of anxiety and stress it was causing me. This led to me missing out on the different leaflets and preparation work for the inevitable lockdown.

It was this that I would class as the begginining of the end for myself.

When the announcement finally came through I thought it would help me. I thought that now I had some sort of concrete idea of what was going on and what way my life would shape for the foreseeable future that I let my guard down. I mean this in a way that I allowed myself to relax and as it turned out relax too much. This, coupled with the fact that the lockdown was announced close to a school holiday meant that l for the first 3/4 weeks I did little to no work. There were other reasons as to why I struggled during this time such as my lack of a laptop and space (due to living in a house with 8 others and a dog) however I used them more as excuses as to why I couldn't rather than hurdles I needed to cross. However these first few weeks were probably the most crucial part of this lockdown for me as it set up how I would spend the rest of them. I spent most of the time either on my phone or on my xbox. This meant that I did not really attempt any of the work set for me to a proper and addiquate degree, so even the work I did do was of a low quality and just generally poor.

This led to me being extremely far behind in my college work and although it may have been possible to catch up with the work if I was keeping all 3 of my subjects (History, Chemistry and Psychology) as I was dropping one of them, namely chemistry, which had been pretty much decided before the pandemic came into play it meant that I would have to pick up the equivalent of an extra 2 lessons instead of the one I thought I would and was told by the teacher of the subject. This was the tipping point into me not enjoying the lessons I was doing.

It just so happened that at that time it also meant that I had the opportunity to attend trails for a football clubs shadow youth team. (I will not be naming the club for obvious reasons) This was successful and led to me being able to train with them everyday. However because I was on a different course I was unable to due to my timetable. Keeping in mind that training had been happening for a few weeks before the college had opened up again when I realised this the big dilemma occurred.

I was being given the choice to either carry on my A Levels but not attend the football which I had been really enjoying, both in the social as well as the actual training side of. Or I could begin again as a first year student and do the shadow youth team course, a Level 3 Btec in sports development and.... This for me was quite a difficult decision but not for the reasons you may think. If I was to continue my A Levels course I would realistically be doing it because of the fact my friends where doing it and would quite possibly be kicked out at the October half term as I was so far behind. But if I was to drop my A Levels I could do something I enjoy pretty much everyday and would also be able to do work that I found slightly easier because of the way it was set out, in assignments and no actual sit down test which although I enjoy I do not find especially easy.

In the end I decided to go with the option which to me seemed like would give me the most long term success and employment. This was doing the football.

I titled this the Importance of doing something you enjoy because although I enjoyed the social aspects of my A Level course I did not really enjoy the content of 2 of my subjects with the only one I can truly say I enjoyed being history. Versus something which I have enjoyed for quite a while and helps me to relax and which I use as a time in which I can escape. It was as close as I have come to a no brainer. The phrase 'if your job is something you enjoy then you'll never work a day in your life' comes to mind as I write this and although it is extremely cliche and overused in situation like this, I have found it to be true. I do not mean this in the traditional sense but in a way that when it comes to having to put the extra work in or to go and push yourself further, it does not seem so difficult. Other people may say that there is no 'extra effort' when you do something you enjoy however I disagree. There will always be extra effort in what ever you do, whether you enjoy it or hate it, but if you enjoy it, it makes the decision to push further a lot easier to make.

In conclusion I would like so say to anyone making any sort of big decision to ensure that you have the right interests at heart. Whether that be your or whether that be other people's and when you do finally decide know that you have chosen the right choice. Also on top of this, don't ever let yourself become so far behind that you have to reevaluate your future 🤣🤣🤣.

I hope you have enjoyed. I will hopefully be uploading more however I am not going to promise anything. I am also unpublishing my other book as I have pretty much everything in this one already so it is pointless having two copies. I will however be happy to complete any other short stories that you may wish to have written. If you have any you believe could be interesting please let me know in the comments.

I am also thinking that most of my future updates will be more like this. A mixture of my own personal experiences littered with a bit of advice from areas that I may not have messed up in, like this. However I will try to keep the whole diary feel going as well. As always any advice for my writing will be extremely appreciated as well as any other comments and I hope that you have/have had a great day.