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| May 1, 2013, 12:24 pm

Autism and success: Everyone has something unique to contribute to the universe

The first time I encountered autism I was about 18-years-old and visiting my brother in New York City. I saw a minivan pull up and drop off a child – the son of one of his neighbors. The child was crying and screaming hysterically as he walked into the house, and I recall being told that the child had autism. I immediately asked, “What’s autism?” They responded, “It’s a condition where the child’s soul has not been able to fully enter the body.” I was obviously horrified by the thought.

Then, at the age of 20, when I was the head counselor of a summer camp in Chicago, I met a camper who suffered from autism. During that summer I became much better acquainted with this condition, which afflicts one in every 88 children in the country.

My non-profit organization Youth Directions just released a film about a young man, Zach Henry, who suffers from autism-Asperger’s Syndrome. It chronicles the challenges he faced growing up, but it’s also a very hopeful and heartwarming story. Through purpose-finding coaching, Zach was able to find his purpose as an actor. This positively has changed his life. Where before he often found himself deeply depressed, misunderstood and spending weeks on end hidden away in his grandparents’ basement playing video games, he now has a hopeful outlook on life and is pursuing his purpose of being an actor.

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