Home Team By: Zach Baumann My sister hates me. She has her room while I have the rest of the house. According to my sister, ever since I was born I have been a sponge, soaking up all of my parents’ attention. I am hard to live with. I am the sun, and my parents are my planets. She is just Pluto, a thing in the distance. I was born nine weeks early, staying in the hospital for the first two weeks of my life. During that time, my sister stayed with my grandparents while my parents and I stayed in the hospital. This was the first time I took my sister's spotlight. Growing up with me was very hard. For a while there was this blackness, this unknown. I was crazy. I never ran out of energy; I was the Energizer Bunny. I could not communicate socially. I have never had a true friend. My lack of social skills affects me in school. On the rare occasions that I try to make friends, I say something and in a snap of a finger it’s just one more person I can not talk to. Even though we are growing up, we still fight. She is going off to college soon. That means I won’t see her. This is the longest I would ever go without seeing my sister. But all my sorrow gets shot down when she says she can’t wait to go to college. Because of me, she wants to get rid of me. She wants me to be a ghost. Whenever my sister had friends over, I could not talk to her. When they wanted to watch a movie, I would pop the popcorn, get the drinks, and candy, and set everything up. But not a single “Thanks” was said. No wonder why I think she hates me. If she says anything to me, she attacks me, saying something like, “Why can’t you get friends?” She talks like I have never tried. I have tried and tried, but I have never succeeded. Even when I walk into her room, I see her eyes roll just like a bowling ball speeding down the lane. Within the first few steps, her words strike me like a pin. “Get out,” she always says. I try to hang out with her, but apparently, I am the problem. As if life without me would be any better. I am the fly and she is the swatter. But only she can be the swatter. There was this one time when one of her friends yelled at me, telling me to leave them alone. This is when my jaw dropped. My sister had my back. She told her friend that only she can talk to me like that. I felt frozen in time. She cared about me. I finally had a glimpse of hope. A small sliver of hope. She loves me? This one moment cleared the fog out of my mind. I realized that I was wrong. My sister loves me. Thousands of memories that we shared together flooded my mind. The time we were hitting each other and accidentally gave each other a high five. We stopped fighting so fast and started laughing. Or the other time when we ran from our dad when we played in the freshly fallen white blanket of snow, teaming up to defeat that snow monster. We were a team. A team. My sister and I are a team. I am so lucky to have my best friend on my team. So far we are undefeated.

My father was a in the United States army, more specifically he was an Army Ranger. People know the saying, "Rangers lead the way" and I believe this to be true especially for me. Since I was a little kid my father has inspired me. Growing up he instilled the importance of hard work, persistence, respect and striving for the best version of yourself. Throughout my educational journey there have been many ups and downs. As a person who is nuerodivergent I had to work extra hard to accomplish my academic success. In 8th grade I was at an elementary school reading level. Knowing I had to improve I worked with the teachers at my school, overcoming my peers looks and judgment. I knew I wanted to see change so I worked hard for that change. Without that inital push from an early age I strongly believe that I would not be as academically successful. On top of being a veteran and a captain at the local police department my father created a security company with my grandfather. In 2003 they created Elite Protection Specialist(EPS). Having my father as an entrepreneur inspired me aswell. During the devastating covid era I got bored. When I was cleaning my room I found $200 in Amazon gift cards. I used them to start a business, “Corona Candles”. I made candles in my basement and sold them. It would cost me $4.26 to make each candle, I would go on to sell them for $15 making a $10.74 profit. I then used that profit and investing it into the stock market, having a dad who is an entrepreneur helped me better my financial decisions. Once I started investing I realized that it would be something I would want a career in. Now I am directly admitted into Indiana Universities Kelley School of Business, which is a top 10 business school in the country. I am planning on majoring in finance with a minor in entrepreneurship. One of my career goals is to eventually start my own financial firm to help people manage their money. Athough, I am not taking the same career path as my father he was a major influence throughout my K-12 years. And I believe he will continue to help me with advice and lessons he has learned throughout his life as veteran and business owner, while I continue in college.

My father was a in the United States army, more specifically he was an Army Ranger. People know the saying, "Rangers lead the way" and I believe this to be true especially for me. Since I was a little kid my father has inspired me. Growing up he instilled the importance of hard work, persistence, respect and striving for the best version of yourself. Throughout my educational journey there have been many ups and downs. As a person who is nuerodivergent I had to work extra hard to accomplish my academic success. In 8th grade I was at an elementary school reading level. Knowing I had to improve I worked with the teachers at my school, overcoming my peers looks and judgment. I knew I wanted to see change so I worked hard for that change. Without that inital push from an early age I strongly believe that I would not be as academically successful. On top of being a veteran and a captain at the local police department my father created a security company with my grandfather. In 2003 they created Elite Protection Specialist(EPS). Having my father as an entrepreneur inspired me aswell. During the devastating covid era I got bored. When I was cleaning my room I found $200 in Amazon gift cards. I used them to start a business, “Corona Candles”. I made candles in my basement and sold them. It would cost me $4.26 to make each candle, I would go on to sell them for $15 making a $10.74 profit. I then used that profit and investing it into the stock market, having a dad who is an entrepreneur helped me better my financial decisions. Once I started investing I realized that it would be something I would want a career in. Now I am directly admitted into Indiana Universities Kelley School of Business, which is a top 10 business school in the country. I am planning on majoring in finance with a minor in entrepreneurship. One of my career goals is to eventually start my own financial firm to help people manage their money. Athough, I am not taking the same career path as my father he was a major influence throughout my K-12 years. And I believe he will continue to help me with advice and lessons he has learned throughout his life as veteran and business owner, while I continue in college.

I am a highlighter. Created to stand out. From the day I was born, I was different. It could be because I was born nine weeks early or because of the superpowers I was given. Not the kind of powers that superheroes have, I am autistic. From the second I was born, I struggled. I was born with many medical conditions and spent the first couple weeks of my life in the hospital. I continued going back to Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin for regular medical visits, for the first two years of my life. Additionally, I was diagnosed with ADHD, Language Processing Disorder, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder, so growing up with me was hard. I had a difficult time focusing and a difficult time learning to read. I never wanted to try new things, and I always needed to get my way. I was scared to try to make new friends because I felt different from any other kids my age. The first time I realized I had superpowers was in elementary school. The first day I received my IEP was life-changing, however, it needed some getting used to. I was taken out of class to work on reading comprehension and spelling which I hated; walking out of the class while kids looked at me wondering where I was going made me feel unordinary. I watched them as they whispered. When I returned to the classroom, kids would ask where I went. I always lied. I would make up excuses that I was helping the teacher get stuff from the printer or setting up the next activity. I disliked this so much that I thought about refusing to go because I did not want to be seen as different from all of the other kids. However, I overcame people's looks and judgment. I kept going to the groups because I knew I wanted to see change. One of the powers I obtained from autism is if I want something done I will work relentlessly until I accomplish the task. I started to show a lot of improvement ultimately getting out of these small group reading sessions. In 5th grade, I started sounding out vowel sounds, and now in high school, I am leading the class in analyzing pieces of creative writing. This is all thanks to my special power. The second time I realized I had special powers was in math class in 8th grade. I have always loved numbers. To me, it allows me to think outside the box. There is an infinite amount of things you can do with numbers. Once, I had to solve a math problem in front of the entire class. I cautiously picked up the marker and started to show my work. When I looked around, I saw so many confused faces. I solved the problem differently than anyone else in the class. This is another superpower that having autism has given me. I love having a different way of analyzing and solving problems. In Greek “aut” means “self”. And “ism” means “condition”. Many people think “autism” means being alone, and there is some truth to that. But to me, it means many different things: being persistent, having a different view of things, paying attention to detail, and retaining information easily. Even though having autism has been a challenge, I have been able to continue to grow and use these superpowers to excel in life, however, none of what I could have accomplished would have been possible if I had not received an IEP.

I am a highlighter. Created to stand out. From the day I was born, I was different. It could be because I was born nine weeks early or because of the superpowers I was given. Not the kind of powers that superheroes have, I am autistic. From the second I was born, I struggled. I was born with many medical conditions and spent the first couple weeks of my life in the hospital. I continued going back to Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin for regular medical visits, for the first two years of my life. Additionally, I was diagnosed with ADHD, Language Processing Disorder, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder, so growing up with me was hard. I had a difficult time focusing and a difficult time learning to read. I never wanted to try new things, and I always needed to get my way. I was scared to try to make new friends because I felt different from any other kids my age. The first time I realized I had superpowers was in elementary school. I was taken out of class to work on reading comprehension and spelling which I hated; walking out of the class while kids looked at me wondering where I was going made me feel unordinary. I watched them as they whispered. When I returned to the classroom, kids would ask where I went. I always lied. I would make up excuses that I was helping the teacher get stuff from the printer or setting up the next activity. I disliked this so much that I thought about refusing to go because I did not want to be seen as different from all of the other kids. However, I overcame people's looks and judgment. I kept going to the groups because I knew I wanted to see change. One of the powers I obtained from autism is if I want something done I will work relentlessly until I accomplish the task. I started to show a lot of improvement ultimately getting out of these small group reading sessions. In 5th grade, I started sounding out vowel sounds, and now in high school, I am leading the class in analyzing pieces of creative writing. This is all thanks to my special power. The second time I realized I had special powers was in math class in 8th grade. I have always loved numbers. To me, it allows me to think outside the box. There is an infinite amount of things you can do with numbers. Once, I had to solve a math problem in front of the entire class. I cautiously picked up the marker and started to show my work. When I looked around, I saw so many confused faces. I solved the problem differently than anyone else in the class. This is another superpower that having autism has given me. I love having a different way of analyzing and solving problems. In Greek “aut” means “self”. And “ism” means “condition”. Many people think “autism” means being alone, and there is some truth to that. But to me, it means many different things: being persistent, having a different view of things, paying attention to detail, and retaining information easily. Even though having autism has been a challenge, I have been able to continue to grow and use these superpowers to excel in life.

If my life was a movie I would capture this part of me: I am a morning person. When I walk through the halls, I see everyone sip their energy drink and cup of coffee. And they proceed to slump over. I get confused because I never need any of that. I have my own cup of coffee. Coffee that I don’t need to drink. A special type that I can’t control. It only has one ingredient. Autism. I was born with a special brain. I see things differently. I find it hard to comprehend different situations. Because of that, I feel like I am on a deserted island. Nobody around to talk to, nobody around to understand me. Nobody understands me; consequently, I understand no one. I don’t like having autism it blocks me socially. I just say what is on my mind, and due to that I harm myself and others. One time we were going through security at the airport. It was an early morning flight, everyone had just started to take their first sips of coffee and my mom's boyfriend's bag got flagged while we were going through TSA. The moment they pulled up the image of what was flagged, I said “That looks like a knife.” No context behind what I said. I just said it. I did not know this would proceed to a 20-minute delay, everything in his bag got taken out. We almost missed our flight because of a toothbrush. Just a toothbrush. Not because of me. In my mind, at that moment I did nothing wrong. This is what life was like for me. I always say the first thing that comes to my mind. I have no filter. I don’t have a barrier that blocks all of the grounds from going in the pot. Although having this brain can harm me I do benefit from it. Because I am affected socially, my friends are minimal, and this results in me having more time to get stuff done. A question I always get asked is “Why don’t you ever have homework?” My response is the same every time. I have nobody to bother me, so I can get it done in school. Whenever I want something done I will do whatever it takes until it is accomplished. I always get compliments on my work ethic. I never know what to say. Because if I say thank you. I am thanking my enemy. But sometimes I wonder if I should say thank you. While I may be stuck in the blackness of the coffee sometimes I need to add some cream to lighten it up. I need to look at the benefits. Do they outweigh the negatives? Look at what I have accomplished. I am the only kid in the grade who manages their own stock portfolio. I have a job that I love. I am getting great grades. What else can I ask for? I heard coffee is an acquired taste.