Special Interests, Different Style of Play, and Numbers
Everyone has things that they like and are interested in, but Autistics and Aspies can take it to a whole different level. These are interests that we can have for years and can be our focus and passion, more so that what most people would consider normal. It is kind of hard to explain them because it is part of who we are. We can pick up more special interests along the road of life, but some have been with us since childhood. Sometimes they come and go in intensity especially if we are trying to fit into society. These are usually topics that we could think about and talk about for hours on end, if allowed to. We try to keep that reigned in because we know that it would drive others crazy if we do it too much. Our special interests can also include people or groups that we are fans of.
Some of my special interests from childhood were crafts, Legos, and Patch the Pirate/Majesty Music. Even as a child, I could spend hours per day crocheting while Mom and the other kids took their afternoon naps. I still have times when I enjoy getting back to this special interest and I have gotten so good at it that I can even crochet in the dark by just using my fingers to feel what I am doing instead of my eyes to watch what I am doing. I tested this at least once by taking my yarn with me to the movie theater and crocheting in the back of the dark room while watching a movie. It was during the daytime, so it was pretty empty. Legos were played with a lot in our house and as an adult I have my own collection that would make any kid jealous. I don't do sets of Legos, just lots and lots of stuff to build whatever your imagination can create, since that's the same thing that we had when I was a kid. Sometimes when I need something to pass a huge chunk of time, like Covid quarantine, I will pull out my Legos and build an entire village for a few days.
Patch the Pirate was also one of my special interests as a child. All of my family enjoyed the tapes/CDs, but I was a bit more intense with it than they were. I was the one who, after the yearly order was made from the Christmas catalog, would keep the catalog in a special place. I had those catalogs saved for years. This was a special interest that I tried to give up as an adult because I thought that it wasn't very grown up and adult-like to keep up with all of the adventures if I was no longer a kid and didn't have kids of my own. I eventually figured out how to get past that idea in my head when I found other adults who could be just as passionate and talkative about it. I then caught up on all that I had missed in the in-between years and have never gotten behind again. I have several different playlists containing different combinations of stuff, all from Patch and Majesty, and I listen to them a lot, especially at night while I am sleeping. I have other music from other similar Christian artists, but Majesty is my most often played playlist.
NASCAR was one of my special interests for several years, especially in my teens. I had different ways of keeping records of things, like each car's number, driver and main sponsor. I would make a new list every year to keep up with the changes. I also kept newspaper clippings from the more memorable things that happened or any NASCAR related advertisements that came with the newspaper. I don't have most of this anymore. I don't remember if I cleaned it out myself at one point, or if it got lost somewhere along the way in my many moves as I left home and became an adult. When my favorite driver retired a few years ago, I lost most of my interest in keeping up with the sport, but I still have a good amount of NASCAR related stuff, especially pertaining to my favorite driver.
One of the more recent additions to my special interests includes essential oils and other natural remedies. Some people do this stuff for a business, but I just do it for myself and anyone who wants to listen to me talk about it. I have given away oils to my friends on occasion when they really needed emergency relief, like for really bad sunburns or similar instances. I like learning more about this stuff and when someone comes into my path that wants to learn, I am eager to talk about it.
Lighthouses and things from my home state of Maine are another special interest. I have even started a project of making my own sea glass with rock tumblers at home. This is a really fun project that I enjoy keeping up with and it reminds me of finding sea glass on the rocky beaches back home.
Most kids love to play with toys, but Autistics and Aspies usually approach this from a different angle. We are more likely to organize and set the whole thing up properly than we are to actually "play house" or something like that. I remember going to friends' houses that had the play kitchen with all of the food and dishes and everything. I was the one who would get everything put in its proper place so that it looked like a real kitchen. Then the other kids would come in and play with everything and mess it all up, like normal kids are prone to do.
The same concept applied when playing with Legos at home with my siblings. I was the one who could build houses properly so that the walls were sturdy, and all connected together. The other kids didn't seem to figure out how to build with the bricks so that they were overlapping and interlocking with each other. The other kids were more focused on playing with the toys and acting out scenes with the characters. They liked that I could build sturdy houses for them, so that became my job, more or less, and I was happy with that arrangement. Even now when I play with my Lego collection, I don't actually act out any story lines. I just build all the buildings for the village, sometimes 20 or more buildings, each different and for a different purpose. When I take apart the village, the Legos are sorted by color or style and stored that way in different containers.
Some Aspies are exceptionally good at math and love numbers. I am not one of those people. I can do really good at basic math, but anything beyond that I will pass on. That doesn't mean that I don't have a weird thing with numbers though. I think this is more of an OCD thing, but it applies to numbers in settings, like volume and such. In my mind these numbers should be divisible by 2, 3, 4, or 5. I try to keep this only to things that I personally have control over and not put this on anyone else, because people will think that it is weird. This applies whenever I change the volume or temperature or anything that might have a number. I have no way to explain the reason behind this, it is just the way my brain works. I am also one of those people that will sort things like M&Ms by color. It is really hard to not do this, even if I know people are watching me and might be judging me. This is only a sampling of how numbers invade my mind when others would least expect it.