Happy Birthday, Danny!

For your twelfth birthday, I decided to give you a more personal gift than simply shipping some stuff to San Diego with a card attached (besides I'm only batting about .400 with those gifts anyway, eh?) What I'm giving you - hopefully - is a little guidance for stumble through the teen years you have ahead of you as an Aspberger kid (which I will hereinafter call Sperbergers for the sake of literary flow).

As you probably know, I am a Sperberger myself. Of course, as a twelve-year-old I didn't know that since the syndrome wasn't catalogued until I was 25 years old. When your Mom called me to let me know you were diagnosed with Asperger's, I looked it up on the Web - I'm pretty much a point-on-point match. This blog is intended to help you through the rough life transition ahead as a teenaged Sperberger with the help of my experiences, my insight, and my love for you.

I appreciate that there are differences between your environment and mine - I had one at-home parent, you have three; I grew up in a mostly closed-minded farm country in the early 1980's, you live in an enlightened and vibrant city with all the helpful technology of the 21st Century at your fingertips - but if I've learned anything, people are still people, teenagers are still teenagers, and feelings are still feelings wherever and whenever you grow up. Your Sperberger mental and emotional wiring may present challenges in the years ahead that can be best served by one who has walked in those moccassins.

All that being said, I will throw down thoughts and experiences here that you may find helpful in the coming years. I will make every effort to carve at least ten minutes out of every day from here on out to toss some wisdom into this blog for you (Blogger is ridiculously easy to use). If you are having any particular quandaries or questions you would like me to address, please let me know - I certainly don't feel I'm the wisest person you know, or that I've been the best Dad on Earth so far, but I *have* been a Sperberger 26 years longer than you have (and 38 years longer than anyone else around you) and we *do* share DNA, so the potential for unique insight definitely exists.

I look forward to hearing from you. This may not help you now or next month, but keep it bookmarked for those times you have questions that nobody else around can answer.

Love,
Dad