Neither Mom nor Dad Understood Me

“Neither Mom nor Dad Understood Me”

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I really don’t think a day would go by without my parents nagging about my inability to speak out in public place or in our family social gatherings, well, as an African, a typical Yoruba Nigerian for that matter, my parents expects me as their only son to possess some features of my father, because my father on the other hand was very agile and active in his work place and even within the community, but for me the reverse was the case, whenever they complain about my dull-tired looks, as Africans who are very superstitious they would conclude that its was the doings of evil family members who doesn’t want me to enjoy my life at the tender age which I was, but on the contrary I was suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder, which means that I see, hear, feel and even sometimes smell the world in ways that others don’t, being autistic means an audience in front of me was a Taboo, to me everything around me was in excess and should be reduced so I get uncomfortable when a group of lousy people are around me, I feel troubled whenever am in a situation where I get to meet new people. My boring life continues like this until I was opportuned to meet with a friend who understood my issue and was able to introduce me to a social worker, these professional made me understood that being autistic means am a special gift to the world and no matter who I get to meet every day, the best of me will still be projected to them, the social worker made it clear that in issues like this it was expedient that people around you get to understand you well, before they just snap judgement on you just because they aren’t really aware of the social problem.

In Months to come I became to gradually find my way through the shadows of autism into understanding it more, over the years in school, have always found it hard to join any sporting team because I wasn’t really good at team communication but with the help of the social worker and my already aware parents and friends I was able to join a tennis club in school, having being enrolled at a local training center were I had to practice on my own, in no time I became a good player, this made my school sport teacher to enroll me for a competition, and as a sole-player for the school in the midst of a huge crowd gazing they looks at me, expecting a wonderful performance from me, I was able to start up the game and won a medal for myself and even the school, these achievement made me understood that no matter, how I feel that life is unfair to me because of me being Autistic , there’s something wonderful in stock for me no matter what issue am having, all thanks to the social worker I met who helped my parents and friends understood how special I was.

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This is a story of world renowed table tennis player Aruna Quadri who was born in 9th August 1988, in Oyo State, he started table tennis by just representing his school Oba Adeyemi High School in Oyo state, Nigeria for a competition and in the previous and present years Aruna has careful crafted a name for himself and for Nigeria.

He is now a role model to many youths and many young tennis players are looking up to him.