My name is Chris Wagner, I am turning 25 years old on August 24th. I am a Foothill high school graduate who’s been going from place to place trying to find work or find an education that will help me down the road, but I have been unable to find work. It’s been five years since I left school when I found myself in a “daycare center.” Two years ago I started classes at Las Positas College. Since then I have been trying to find ways to accomplish lots of my future goals at the college.
I keep looking for interesting things to do. My autism is a difficult to say what it is– and has held me back. When I was small, I found myself interested in exploring many things in school like history, Shakespearean plays, and science. I kept wanting to learn more about plays, the universe, and the California Gold Rush. I would imagine all these stories about the Civil War, Gold Rush, and World War II.
When I reached age ten, I began looking at old movies such as Casablanca, Star Wars, and even the Great Escape. I have seen many movies over the years both old and new. I try to share my thoughts and what I know about new and old cinema sometimes, but some people my age aren’t interested. Others go to their phones instead of the faces of people. This makes it harder for me to talk to people.
I found life hard especially when I figured out I had autism. It never occurred to me that I had it, until I was fourteen years old. I was sent to a “daycare center” where most of the kids there were on the spectrum. For a while I thought I wasn’t autistic till one day it occurred to me that I had a disability as to why my folks were sending me there. From there on I said to myself, “I am autistic, but I can do good in life and go far.”
Eventually I got into the idea of storytelling and developed the idea of writing my own stories. Everyone kept on telling me I should write my ideas down. I never got hooked onto writing one genre as I considered myself a man of multiple genres. I first thought of writing only parodies then I moved to action, fantasy, or comedy stuff. I have finished a few of them and I keep wanting to add more to the stories. Like info on the characters and expand the scene. I keep on coming up with more stories and choose which one to work on based on what’s in my head. I often want to make the hero from someone who never has things going well for him or her.
After I finished the first draft, I wasn’t satisfied with the dialogue as what people said were nothing but one liners with no personality. There was a one-scene character who didn’t end up the way I wanted him to be. In the first draft, I felt the action was a bit weak when one person throws a punch and the other person goes down and it’s all over. I hope someday my stories can become future films or even books. I don’t just want to write stories; I also want to share them with the world.
I hope to go far in life and even hope to graduate college or even drive. I’m getting older and have many goals in life I wish to complete so I would love to be part of the housing community. I hope to gain something from living at Sunflower Hill and learn something out of it. I have gone through a lot and I’m proud to have shared this.
Written by Chris Wagner