Until I was 13, I assumed I was just like everyone else. But one day I read a piece of paper in my dad's briefcase that 1everything. That's when I saw the words: “Simone is said to have Asperger syndrome (自闭症).”

I screamed at my dad, “Tell me what it is!” He 2 that I have a mild form of brain disorders, which was a problem that shapes the way I interact with other people. I wasn't sure exactly what he 3 but it didn't matter. I just wanted to try to4 my shock and go back to the way things were before I knew.

But even though I wouldn't5 accept the fact, Asperger's (Asperger syndrome) still destroyed my confidence and made me 6 I felt like an outcast(被抛弃者) —not just because Asperger's made it hard for me to make friends, but because now I had this7 I just wanted to be like everyone else.8 at 16, I said to myself, “Enough! You can't run and hide from it, girl. Just face it.”

It's funny, the first time I thought something was 9was not because of what I couldn't do—it was because of what I could do. In the sixth grade, while other kids were

10 with spelling, I was like a human spell-checker! I've also had a photographic memory, and what I call my “super powers”—extrasensory hearing and acute 11I can 12 phone numbers people dial just by the sound the buttons make when pressed or

    13 hear one incorrect note in an entire symphony! And I can 14 pay attention to two things at once.

Don't get me wrong. Asperger's can be very confusing. For years I felt like a butterfly

    15in its cocoon (茧），waiting to fly.  It took years of work with a psychologist to get over the 16of making friends.

I'm not going to let Asperger's create 17for me. That' why I am happy to have found out about and faced my18 Asperger's is a metaphor (象征) for life: We all have

19 but the key is to be able to have the 20to face what's bad about them and still find what's good.