I have a new Mentor

I thought it might be worth sharing the email I wrote to Alex, my mentor for the coming academic year, my final one at university. We have been trying to work out a convenient time to meet before the new semester begins.

In his last email, Alex told me he had worked with a lot of people with Asperger's syndrome and decribed himself as having 'long brown hair and a beard'. This is most of my reply

I knew I had some extra breakfast shifts coming up but didn't realise it was as early as this week. I'll be working Friday, Sat, Sun, Mon and Tuesday breakfasts. Weekdays, my hours are 5.30am until 1.30pm. If we met Wednesday morning, I would bring my boyfriend as he would probably like to know I was going to be alright, which is kind but daft because I usually do cope, somewhere between really well and crisis, on my own. Wednesday, Thursday or Friday the following week are also good. I realise I should have looked in my diary first. Sorry to be messing you about. Makes me feel like a spambot.

From your self description, you sound like Jesus so if I look at your feet first, I'm only looking for sandals, ok?

I used to think people meant as colleagues when they said they worked with a lot of people with Asperger's but, to my disappointment, it has been as a helper, not an equal. I can tell by the way people talk they somehow consider me a little less than themselves, or a half wit, but it's actually quite the opposite. You see, if someone you chatted to by the office coffee machine made a joke, you'd at least acknowledge it, even if you didn't think it was all that funny.

Now, if I make a joke, most people who work with the 'disabled' in a caring capacity would not dare to laugh in case I was being serious and it upset me. I might also get a straight answer 'just in case' even though they actually knew it was a joke in the first place. So who is the half wit? Somebody, somewhere, decided that autistic people have little or no sense of humour and social pressure to conform to this idea refuses to acknowledge the blindingly obvious and respond appropriately. Like laugh, or smile, for instance.

It's probably a good idea to become acquainted a little before we meet. I can probably now assume you are a bloke, unless you are a weirdy, bearded lady and some kind of circus freak.