UK Olympic Chair announces 16 year old female swimmer "clean". No doping. History made

[Fumesucker]

54. I disagree..

There's many a slip twixt cup and lip, by which I mean that there are many ways to screw up your life that are far from obvious in advance even assuming you have a reasonably normal personality which by no means everyone does..

There was a DU post up a couple of days ago by hifiguy that addressed this very well I thought..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1046083

I was a high-school dropout at 16. After years of pursuing a life of leisurely bass-playing and vending herbal commodities (being a bum, in essence ) I decided to go to college while working at a dry-cleaning shop where the owner's sister-in-law talked me into giving it a shot. Got my GED on a lark, scoring three 99s, a 95 and a 93. Enrolled at the University of Minnesota at the age of 25, where I graduated four years later summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. Was admitted to Harvard Law (and 8 of the other 9 schools to which I applied) and graduated three years later with my J.D. and a B+ average. One of my classmates was one Michelle Robinson, n/k/a Michelle Obama.

Since I graduated I have made $50,000 or more on an annual basis for exactly 60 months out of 24 years. I have been unemployed for 67 months of that time, and under-empoyed for virtually all the rest of that time..

I did it all correctly. Excelled everywhere. Went to the best schools. So why have I failed to the point where my retirement plan - when that day comes in another 10 years or so - is a 9mm pistol and a bullet to the temple?

Simple. I was diagnosed as Asperger's in 2005 while undergoing treatment for a severe depressive episode. I was doomed to fail in the legal profession from the start. It's highly social and I am a fundamentally asocial person with few people skills. Brilliant at certain things but utterly unable to make small talk, ingratiate myself with anyone or understand office politics. I clam up and give one-word answers to people I don't know and trust in situations like job interviews. I also feel incredibly awkward in a suit and never really learned how to be an adult in social terms: never had a date, much less a relationship (now by choice) or ever been able to hold a decent-paying job. When I described Asperger's to a good friend, who was a very high-ranking executive (I met him through our common interest in High End home audio, about which I have written for 15+ years), he said "You not only didn't know the rules, you didn't even know there was a game!" And that's about as concise a description of Asperger's as there is.