Overcoming Adversity

"Look Me in the Eye" by John Elder Robison is the story of the struggle of a young man just to be normal. It sounds like an easy accomplishment. However, the young man in question was a victim of Asperger's Syndrome, a mild form of autism. At every age, there was a new challenge for John. As a toddler playing with blocks, John boxed another toddler in the ears when he dared put a red block on John's stack of blue blocks. In nursery school, the other kids avoided him due to his odd behavior that sometimes included violence. As he progressed in school, he would sometimes do very well in his studies because intellectually he was brilliant. But his social skills were so poor and, in large part, unacceptable by others, that he was shunned by his peers which showed up in his grades.

As evidence...