The sounds of the jungle reverberated around me, the birds and insects roared relentlessly in the background. I heard the snap of a twig somewhere off to the left and saw my uncle's hand reach slowly for his gun. We waited a moment in silence, heard nothing else, so we resumed walking. Despite being only about one hundred and fifty feet inland from the banks of the Essequibo River, we still had to stay vigilant for jungle predators. I felt...

At the age of thirteen, I was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, a developmental and learning disorder on the autism spectrum. Despite my unusually late diagnosis, I have struggled with the symptoms of the disorder all my life. While the cause of the "disability" as some call it, is not known, its effects include delays in the development of several basic skills, most notably social and communicative skills. Additionally, the disorder manifests itself in a myriad of other ways, including, behavioral...