Author Archives: Bart Shoaf

I love sports, but never made the varsity. Now I am okay with getting my sport fix on the radio, or a few games a year whether during March Madness, or football season. I wanted to play baseball as a kid, but after years of trying to make first string, I stopped making the teamContinue reading “Not Seeing Fast Enough”

I tried selling life insurance for a short season in my young 30s. It sounded great, helping people move toward financial security, but I wasn’t getting it done. If I had known then what I now know about myself – ASD, ADD, anxiety when things aren’t perfect, “filter problems” – saying the wrong thing –Continue reading “Hyper-Pro No Mo’”

Many studies have been done to tie autism to genetics. Before my diagnosis, I was stood somewhat firmly in the “environment” camp. As a child, and then as a father, I figured we humans were mostly products of the different environments we were subject to. Now I see that it is not an “either/or” thing. Continue reading “Genetics or Upbringing?”

I’m coming out of the closet.  It’s not a gender identity closet, or a secret sin closet, or even a secret nerdy interest closet.  It’s a closet that I didn’t know I was in for the first 53 years of my life.  It’s a closet for some, a desert island for others, and a socialContinue reading “Discovery or Diagnosis?”