"Aspie" educates and entertains
On October 21, the very inspirational
(and very funny) Jay Serdula
came to Fanshawe College to speak
to students from the Autism and
Behavioural Science program.
Serdula has a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics, a Master's in Physics/Oceanography and is currently working at the Royal Military College of Canada as a Research Assistant in the Chemical Engineering Department. Serdula also has Asperger syndrome and has spent the past few years speaking to various groups about living with this disorder.
In 2008, Serdula swam across Lake Ontario to raise money and awareness for Asperger syndrome. Though the task seemed daunting, Serdula described how determined an "Aspie" can be. "When they make up their mind that they're going to do something, they do it — they may just have to change the course of their plans."
With months of training under his belt, Serdula successfully completed his swim, though he admitted that it was not an easy task. At one point he found himself wanting to stop the swim and said, jokingly, "Does this lake even have another side?" But, thanks to his support team, Serdula finished his swim and has been publicly speaking about his cause ever since.
Serdula's parents tried for years to get him a diagnosis as a child, but he wasn't diagnosed with Asperger syndrome until he was 26 years old. Throughout his presentation, he told funny stories from his life in order to better explain the difficulties he had growing up surrounded by people who didn't understand the details of his disorder.
He told the story of how, as a young boy, his dad caught him jumping on the couch. His dad said, "Jay, stop jumping on the blue couch," and so he did. A few minutes later, his dad came back and found him jumping on the yellow chair, which in Serdula's mind wasn't breaking any rules. As an "Aspie" he said he requires very specific instructions, such as, "Jay, don't jump on any piece of furniture."
He said that people with Asperger syndrome typically also take longer to learn social rules, have a hard time multi-tasking and take words and phrases literally. "When people say the same thing to mean two different things, that's what confuses me," said Serdula, using the question 'How are you?' as an example. For many people, a brief 'How are you?' in passing is just a greeting requiring a quick response, but for Serdula, it is a question demanding a detailed answer. As he puts it, "If you ask me 'How are you?' it will take me 30 minutes to tell you. Do you still want to know?"
Serdula's first-hand account of what it was like growing up with Asperger syndrome offered insight into a disorder that many people still don't fully understand, and his humourous story-telling style of speaking kept the class engaged for every minute of the presentation.
To read more about Sardula, visit swim4aspergers.wordpress.com, or pick up a copy of his book The Ambition of an Aspie at The Mustard Seed bookstore at 502 Springbank Dr. here in London.
Serdula has a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics, a Master's in Physics/Oceanography and is currently working at the Royal Military College of Canada as a Research Assistant in the Chemical Engineering Department. Serdula also has Asperger syndrome and has spent the past few years speaking to various groups about living with this disorder.
In 2008, Serdula swam across Lake Ontario to raise money and awareness for Asperger syndrome. Though the task seemed daunting, Serdula described how determined an "Aspie" can be. "When they make up their mind that they're going to do something, they do it — they may just have to change the course of their plans."
With months of training under his belt, Serdula successfully completed his swim, though he admitted that it was not an easy task. At one point he found himself wanting to stop the swim and said, jokingly, "Does this lake even have another side?" But, thanks to his support team, Serdula finished his swim and has been publicly speaking about his cause ever since.
Serdula's parents tried for years to get him a diagnosis as a child, but he wasn't diagnosed with Asperger syndrome until he was 26 years old. Throughout his presentation, he told funny stories from his life in order to better explain the difficulties he had growing up surrounded by people who didn't understand the details of his disorder.
He told the story of how, as a young boy, his dad caught him jumping on the couch. His dad said, "Jay, stop jumping on the blue couch," and so he did. A few minutes later, his dad came back and found him jumping on the yellow chair, which in Serdula's mind wasn't breaking any rules. As an "Aspie" he said he requires very specific instructions, such as, "Jay, don't jump on any piece of furniture."
He said that people with Asperger syndrome typically also take longer to learn social rules, have a hard time multi-tasking and take words and phrases literally. "When people say the same thing to mean two different things, that's what confuses me," said Serdula, using the question 'How are you?' as an example. For many people, a brief 'How are you?' in passing is just a greeting requiring a quick response, but for Serdula, it is a question demanding a detailed answer. As he puts it, "If you ask me 'How are you?' it will take me 30 minutes to tell you. Do you still want to know?"
Serdula's first-hand account of what it was like growing up with Asperger syndrome offered insight into a disorder that many people still don't fully understand, and his humourous story-telling style of speaking kept the class engaged for every minute of the presentation.
To read more about Sardula, visit swim4aspergers.wordpress.com, or pick up a copy of his book The Ambition of an Aspie at The Mustard Seed bookstore at 502 Springbank Dr. here in London.
