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Mikah Townsend<br />
Age 20, Hudsonville<br />
“One unique thing about me is that I am autistic.<br />
I enjoy talking about my autism because I believe<br />
that I have this disorder for a reason. I was diagnosed<br />
early, in the second grade and that can really help<br />
because you can learn how to be you instead of worrying<br />
about fitting in because there is no use in it. I’ve<br />
learned to love my autism. There are more pros than<br />
cons in my opinion. You can blend in, you can act<br />
like you don’t have autism. I am very lucky, I am high<br />
functioning. Since I am high functioning, not many<br />
things bother me whereas I know of people who also<br />
have autism that struggle with sensory issues. I would<br />
say that I am very detail orientated. I get very distracted<br />
with paint, for example. It is very troublesome<br />
for me to notice a wall that hasn’t been properly<br />
glazed. As my mom would say, that makes my teeth<br />
itch. It’s kind of like the nails on the chalkboard sound<br />
but it’s with touch. Another random texture I can’t<br />
stand are tomatoes.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Hannah Burnis<br />
David Drummond<br />
Age 23, East Grand Rapids<br />
“I moved to East Grand Rapids from New Hampshire, which was a<br />
huge change. I found myself in a small and extremely wealthy town,<br />
but I absolutely loved it. I was the star athlete in high school and got<br />
an awesome scholarship to go to Saginaw Valley University. They<br />
have a decent football program so I decided to go for it. After a year<br />
of being in the program I dropped out and moved back home. It was<br />
hard moving back to such a small town where everyone knew I had<br />
dropped out of school. I felt like such a disappointment and needed<br />
to find a school to help me get back on my feet. I started attending<br />
Grand Rapids Community College, which helped me realize how important<br />
school actually is. Next year I will be transferring from Grand<br />
Rapids Community College to Ferris State University to play football<br />
yet again. It’s my passion, and I’m happy I could use <strong>GRCC</strong> as my<br />
backbone to set my priorities straight.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Nikki Herrmann<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 47
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