You said you really struggled with your training. Did they use lots of "put yourself in the place of this other person" type training? It's a fairly common training method for customer service type jobs. As far as all the stuff I know about Aspergers students, their prognosis is actually quite positive. If it turns out you have it, it's probably fair to say you wont be all that happy working in a customer-service type job (not many people are though) but not impossible that you could succeed with the right type of training. If you deal with it properly, it's sort of like being dyslexic - it wont hold you back, as long as you recognize your particular strengths. You'll come to know how you learn, and find ways to learn that way, and you'll be fine.
Wow! You guys sure have a lot of interesting and encouraging things to say. First, though, I want to adress this question from Smells. No, it really wasn't "put yourself in the place of this other person" type training. What I had to do was memorize a lot of commands for this software platform called Sabre. Basically, if we want to find the flight the customer wants, we type in some arcane command to find the airline, then another arcane command to find the class of service, then yet to see if that particular class is available. (and by class I don't mean coach, business or first class. Airlines apparently have different "classes" for airfare. It's complicated, or at least it is to me.)
In other words, the system we were using was complicated in a way to properly trip me up. (Not blaming them, just saying I found it difficult.) If I found the work to actually be interesting I think I would have actually done well. One of the things I found interesting as I've read up about Aspergers is that whole thing about narrow interests and how we often can't be bothered to focus on something else. This was certainly a problem when I was in school. Even if it was a subject I found interesting I might find myself distracted by a subfield of that subject. A case in point would be my world history class in high school. Our task for each quarter was to put together a multimedia project on a Great Man/Woman from history. That should have been up my alley except for two things - I had a tough time actually putting the projects together. This lead me do discouragement and inaction. The other thing was that instead of reading up on, say, Peter the Great as I was supposed to, I'd find another history book and read about another period of history far removed for 17th/18th century Russia. As a result, I did not pass the class.
As for the whole empathy thing, well, I'm pretty damn sure I have it. I can usually discern non-verbal queue's well enough. I'm just akward in playing my part, I guess. I dealt with customers in a call center once upon a time and only lasted about six or seven months before I threw in the towel. I didn't do very well and it was just a draining experience. I can establish a rapport with people, but it takes work for me. A lot of work. When you first meet me I'm pretty shy and withdrawn, but once we become friends I do tend to come out of my shell. Even then I'm noticeably different. I've been busy telling all my friends about my "diagnosis". More than a few have told me they have actually suspected I might have AS for some time. They didn't mention anything because, well, how
do you bring that up in conversation?
Moving on, I think Dawg hits the nail on the head about the old narrow definition of "normal" being misguided. I really hope we learn more about the brain in the decades to come so we can one day get a better idea of what "normal" really is. (or if it even exists.) Do something to contain those that are a danger to themselves or others of course, but work with the more benign cases to make all our lives easier. In other words, the norms and aspies should learn to accomadate each other and recognize we live in a neurodiverse world as Mite points out. For my part, I'm looking forward to learning what "flavor" of aspergers I might have. In the meantime, I'm looking to volunteer at a local historical preservation society in hopes that may someday lead to a paying gig. I plan to keep writing on my blog as well. (Believe it or not, I was actually a journalist all through college. I don't know how I managed that but I did. That's what I almost got my degree in, in fact (six credits short. It was great fun and still hope to make a living as a writer some day.)
Anyway, thanks guys. I knew I could get some interesting and useful responses out of you.
