I was first examined at the age of 4, the diagnosis was that I was just "smart". I was in and out of tests for one thing or another through high school. The first time anybody said Autism was when I was 17. But my dad rejected that, and did not follow up on it.
I managed to get through the psych evaluation, and join the Air Force, where I held a top secret security clearance and loaded bombs on the F111. I was RIFd in 1990.
After I got home, I went to college. I did well initially, while I lived under my dad's roof. But when I moved out and had to take a job, my grades tanked and I bombed out. I was given a 2nd chance to get a degree thanks to my step-father, but again, working while going to school was too much for me, and I again failed out. I worked for a little over a year at Sykes Enterprises (a subcontractor for Apple's Tech Support), but ended up leaving that job due to a false accusation of misconduct (let's put it like this... I got my unemployment benefits, despite what Sykes said).
About a year later I found myself in Pdx, and I landed a job as a travel agent. Just before that, I was riding along with my sister, while she was listening to Dr. Laura Schlessinger, and we heard the description of Aspergers for the first time. Within a month my mom and stepfather arranged for me to be tested at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in PDX (one of the only hospitals in the area for that kind of diagnosis). The answer came back as HFA on the paperwork.
After that, my dad came clean about the acquaintance back when I was 17. Turns out she was a med student who was working on getting her degree and had come across the description, and my behavior fit it to a "T". However, autism in 1986 was little known, and blamed on bad parenting, thus my dad's anger and denial.
Since then I held a steady job until 2009 when the economic downturn and the spread of online based travel sites devastated the travel industry. Thanks to my diagnosis, I did manage to get training that allowed me to finish my degree. I managed to finish the degree thanks to my retirement fund (now gone), and a settlement after being hit by a car while riding my bike (I was right hooked). Now, I'm in China, teaching English, and severely obsessed with rockets.