Kadin McElwain: Conquering Autism Through Family Support, Advocacy, and Digital Storytelling – An Inspiring Journey of Personal Growth and Resilience

Welcome to Why Not Me the World? Podcast, hosted by
Tony Mantor, broadcasting from Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. Join
us as our guests tell us their stories. Some will
make you laugh, some will make you cry. Real life
people who will inspire and show that you are not
alone in this world. Hopefully you gain more awareness, acceptance,
and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi,
I'm Tony Mentor. Welcome to Why Not Me the World.
Today's guest is Kaden mcelwaine. He joins us today to
talk about his autism and how he plans to use
his platform to be an advocate for the autistic community.
So thanks for.
Coming on, Thanks for having me.
Oh, it's my pleasure. So what age was it that
you was diagnosed to autistic?
Well, I was stargnosed when I was two years old,
so I don't remember too many details, but I remember
it was right after I got smallpox vaccination, which was
a coincidence, so that of course didn't cause autism. I
always spawned that funny motion, so that conspiracy theory is
out there. And I remember how when I was diagnosed,
Faery doctor who diagnosed me said to my parents don't
expect college from expect trade school at most for a
mene group home. And my parents weren't going to tolerate
that or have it. So they invested so much time
and energy into me to get me to where I'm
at today.
That's great.
Now I'm going to college, doing all this cool advocacy work,
appearing on platforms like this. I got a story in
Autism Digest that comes out in August for their back
to school at DOUE. Oh. If it wasn't for my parents'
stad case and towards me, I now I would be
in the position I'm at today, and I'm extremely grateful
for them.
That's awesome that they had that kind of support for you.
So what led up to them realizing that they had
to get you diagnosed for autism?
Well, I've never really asked that, if I'm being totally honest,
but most likely it was fallen behind on verbal communication
skills like not talking for a long time, not being
able to look people in the eye, not interacting with people,
heightened sensitivities to sound and why and that kind of thing.
I don't have those sensitivities particularly much now, but I
know those are very common and children diagnosed at a
young age.
Okay, so how old are you now?
I'm twenty years old as of tuesday.
Okay, So what do you remember about school? Was you
in a private school? Public school? What are your memories
of that on your first days of going to school?
Well, at started out, I went to a specialized school,
tell me get ready for public school. But then my
parents decided to mainstream school me at a young age, kindergarten.
To be exact, they knew what I was capable of.
They had the doctors and the various family members telling
them about I wasn't going to be capable of anything,
and I said, start looking for group homes and trade
schools now. But as I told you, my parents weren't
me to have that. They knew I was capable of
doing amazing things in this society. They knew I could
handle public school. They ignored the naysayers and enrolled me,
and I thrived like I always do, at least academically.
So did you have any problems in school? Did the
kids bug you, bully you, anything like that? How did
you do in school overall?
Well, like I said, academically, finish went fine. In fact,
I was and the smartest kids in the class. But socially,
elementary school was fine. I was popular because back then
they didn't see differences and they were taught respect depending
on the kids, But middle school and high school, as
typical with anyone, not just people who are neurodivergent, it
was a nightmare of bullying and discriminates, and especially with students.
To be fair, though, I stuck my nose in a
couple of people's business throughout middle school and high school,
for example, like towing on kids who were on their phones,
stiring class, and petty stuff like that. Looking back at
it now, it's actually kind of funny. But I do
say that those kids have known I was on the
autism spectrum, were at least different as I think if
they had known, because I didn't interact with many of
the students then I was total bookworm, as we say,
had a good student so I never had time for
those kinds of interactions. Then maybe most students would have
better understood the situation.
Sure, so now you're going to college, So what's your major?
Now that you're in college?
Ironically, given I have the trouble with certain social elements
public relations, I initially wanted to work in the music
or politics industry, but those two industries are extremely toxic.
One you got to work for a big name client
and for another. Politics. To be exact, you can make
it big depending on the politician, but you have to
throw away your morals and that's just not the type
of person I am. So I think now I want
to work for a nonprofit organization center around autism so
I can continue the advocacy work I'm doing.
Now, Okay, that's great. I think you're right on a
lot of points that you just said. So is this
your second or third year at college?
Further year? Actually, I just finished off my sophomore year
and I got my fourth consecutive Geenies list in a
row last semester.
Wow, that's great. So you mentioned that you lived in
Nashville for a while. While you was here, what was
your main focus.
Well, I was mainly focused on completing high school. We
all moved down there as a family. Then COVID hit
and everything was online, as you know. So in a
way online thing was a blessing in disguise for me
because I didn't have to worry about the stigmas, didn't
have to worry about the bullying and being treated unfairly.
It was just me and the computer, and thanks to
online as case and I got. I ended up graduating
a couple of months early on Valentine's Day of twenty two,
to be exact.
So over the years you've had to deal with bullying
and all those type of things. What are the challenges
that you deal with today? Has anything changed?
There? About the same stuff as when I was a teenager,
of both social stuff, taking things literally, not understanding facial
expressions as much as I said, and up honestly holding
grudges against people for a while over stupid stock. I
can't go into the details of one of those struges
out of respect for those involved. But those are the
main things.
Okay.
I've been really focused on my mental health and self
esteem this you're particularly. I've been going to therapy, working out,
trying to eat better. I was able to kick energy
during to help improve my mental and physical well being.
Next is coffee and fast food.
That's great. Eating healthy is a very good thing.
I'm not going to be twenty years old forever, so
it's important to me. But I focused on my mental
health and physical health now so I can live a prosperous,
happy life later.
Absolutely, So what's your dream job? You're doing advocacy now,
you're promoting as much as you can. You're going to
school for pr. You eventually want to get into that
for a living, to help autistic community. So what's your
dream job if everything fell the way that you wanted
to go Right now?
There, I'm already doing that because you work now. It
started with a class project from a freshman year of
collags In. The assignment was to think of a way
to help the community. So my group and I set
up a GoFundMe for a Bolutism Society of America. We
ended up raising over one thousand dollars for that organization
and we won a contest with our project. But I
saw as typical with my generation, the TikTok generation, my
group really wasn't it into it. They only wanted to
do the assignment to dip the grade of the Browning
points and prize money we got for winning the contest.
And I noticed that autism isn't a cause commonly paid
attention to and mainstream media and politics. There are a
couple of bills out there has come to my attention
recently but I still say we definitely have a lot
of work to do. We truly do. So I thought, hey,
no one else is taking this serious, I might as
well start a movement. So that class project led to
a bunch of different opportunities for me. That's all peering
on platforms like this to tell my story, meaning up
with politicians in my area, to discuss ways, tope, autism community,
planning fund raisers for the autism community, planning events from
autism community. So I think eventually I want to work
with an autism organization. My dream job, if I didn't
have to worry about taxes, mortgages, loans, bills and all
other adult responsibilities, would be to be in the music
industry as a singer songwriter. But there's a lot of
struggling singer songwriters out there, as I'm sure you know
you're in that industry. I want to work for an
autism organization, the PR Department to be exact. As a hobby,
I definitely want to continue the advocacy work I'm doing now. Eventually,
once I have that success in PR and all other endeavors,
I want to run for political office in my area
or in this country. I think we need more Nerdi
version of mind to see the government just so we
can teach the world kindness and compassionate and unity for once.
So do you have an organization in mind that you
would like to join or be part of once you
graduate from college so that you can get your life
started the way that you're hoping to see it go.
Well, I've mainly been looking for autism organizations, but I'm
moving to anything. I got an internship waiting for me
for as controversial school as they are in this community,
autism speaks who I hold a couple of grudges against
for their past controversies. But I will say I'm giving
props for giving me a chance trying to put more
Nerd version and autistic people onto fair board and moving
along with times. So I got that intern said waiting
for me come spring of twenty twenty five that I'd
be open to any autism organization. I'm just a guy
who believes in this cause.
Yeah, definitely, I applaud you for that, because everyone has
to have a cause, and this is a great one.
So if you find stress is getting to you or
just life in general, what do you do as a
stress buster just to relax? And get away from it all.
Well, like Kip, I'm under stressing. I mean a good
stress coping mechanism Mark used is putting on a song
and the zoning out. One news song I discovered recently,
actually today to be exact, that came out today at
the time of this recording is Temporary by Eminem on
his new album Okay.
So you say that your goals are to help the
autistic community and build as much knowledge as you possibly can.
Do you have anything else that you love to do
that is a side job or just something that you
really like to do, something that maybe people thought you
couldn't do. But this is your way of saying, hey,
look at me, I'm doing what I want to do well.
Lakas said, Eventually, I want to run for political office.
At first, I I wanted to run for president immediately
and be the first neurodiversion president in US history. But
I think I got to get some political experience first.
So I think I want to start small, go towards
a position like commissioner or sender or that kind of thing,
and in a sense of short term evntion, I definitely
want to continue the stuff I'm doing now appearing on
these platforms, telling my story, giving speech, is planning these events.
I got junior year of college coming up in August.
I'm hoping to get another Dean's list, two more technically
one for each semesters to even me out to six
and in the sense of long term when it comes
to college, if I can get eight consecutive deans lists
for all four years of college, that would be awesome.
Yeah, that definitely would be awesome. That would be just
great for you. So you said that in your earlier
years you had some sound issues. How is that today?
Do you have any problems with sound, whether it be
loud or or different things, And if you do, how
do you cope with it?
I think I've grown past one. I handle crowded spaces
extremely well. In fact, I love going to clubs and
events and things like that whenever I have time.
That's great. I'm glad to see that you've got past that.
So what about textures of food? Some autistic people have
different things that they can't tolerate and just can't fathom.
Do you have any of those problems at all? How's
textures of food for you?
As a matter of fact, I do hope for some
reason I hate peanut butter and nuts and breakfast cereals
and stuff like that. And I think it's definitely because texture,
because it's weird. I used to love peanut butter when
I was younger. I would have on pancakes, I would
have it on pretty much at anything. Then one day
I just pretty much stopped loving that. Oh and mac
and cheese craft mac and cheese, to be exact, I
just can't tolerate that.
Yeah. Now, what about textures of clothing? Some people have
that as an issue. Does that bother you at all?
No, not at all unless you come to ITSI sweaters,
which all people probably despise. I don't have any texture
issues when it comes to clothes.
Okay, good, good. Now what about focus? Are you one
of those that when you start digging into everything, you
just become so focused and you dig into it until
you just get where you want to be on it?
Definitely. I have four jobs I'm working right now this summer,
and whenever I'm on a task, I'm super hyper focused
and I get a job done. That's honestly why I'm
such a great worker and a great student, Because once
I start studying or working on a class, project or
working on the job. I'm extremely focused, in fact, focusing
on academics. Thing. This college is one of the reasons
why I don't socialize as much as I liked you,
because a lot of the students in college waste away
for parents, twist some money and their student loans and
what have you to go out and party and vape
and smoke and do all that. And I'm not into that.
I'm a guy who thinks rules should be followed and
people should focus on their academics, which I think is
also part of bolotism for me. So I'm incredibly focused
on my academics.
Okay, all right, So what about you? What kind of
a support system do you have? You mentioned your parents
pushing you and wanting to help you. What kind of
support system do you have from friends or other parts
of your family.
Well, I have my parents. They've been my biggest supporters
even when I didn't deserve it, and I'm extremely grateful
for them. And I also have a combinations I get
from my university testing accombinations to be exact, which is
simply a quiet space to do the test and or
the examinason or whatever, and extended time on said test.
Okay, Now, do you have any other family, brothers, sisters,
or anything.
Yes, sir, I have one older sister and four younger siblings.
Okay, how do you get along with them? Everything good
with them.
With my biggest sister, it's complicated when I'm getting to that.
Are really stip is I love hate dynamic if you will.
But with my younger siblings, I'm super sweet to them.
Most big brother reus or big sisters would be made
to their siblings, but I'm not like that at all.
I'm extremely nice, extremely capassionate, and I think our bond
is super strong.
Okay, good. So with everything that you're doing now college
and everything, do you see them a lot? Are they
in your life? How's the dynamic with them now?
Well? I am It's definitely good. Bear. I interact well
with my siblings, I said, and I'm in their lives.
There was one semester in college where I didn't call
my family at all because I was going through a
tough time transitioning into a new school, because I actually
transferred from another college to the current college I'm going
to now. I was struggling with the class subject math,
to be exact, which I still struggle with quite frankly.
But the math class I'm taking this semester, it's going
to be online, and I concentrate better online when it
comes to math. The subject was rustling me out to
the point of me getting sick and passing out and
breaking down into tiers every day. And that little incident
alone is what inspired me to start going to therapy,
start working out, and start taking better care of my health.
So has therapy helped you quite consistently? Have you seen
a difference from when you started it to where you
are presently?
Yeah, I absolutely see a difference. Have been learning to
embrace myself more. I haven't been hard myself too much
when it comes to academics and adult stuff. That's been
a major part of the current success I'm having now.
So you've got what one more year or two more
years at school?
I got two more years of this upcoming year and
then next year.
Good good, good. So when you were younger and you
was going through some of the struggles, how did you
see yourself get through them? Did your parents help you
through it? What kind of structure did you have set
up that got you through so that you could keep
moving forward?
Well, like I said, my parents have been major supporters
of mind and this living life. They've put in so
much time and energy into me, sometimes at the cost
of our own sanity. Occupational therapy, physical therapy, ABA therapy
cutting out teachers at IEP meetings when they weren't doing
for jobs the teachers.
That is right, right, So you had ABA therapy. How
long did you have that?
Well, very last year of high school when I was
about ready to start preparing for my freshman year of college.
Okay, all right, So other than ABA therapy, did you
have any other help during your teens and younger years?
Yeah, I had those global resources. I have an online class,
a good relationship of matias, a supportive set of parents
that I have a lot of help.
Good. Now you had other You had your siblings that
was part of your life while he was growing up.
How did that dynamic go with you growing up with
your autism? Did they understand it? How did they learn
about what you was going through?
Well, they were younger than me. The first younger sibling
is nine years old, with the youngest being six years old,
So we did have to explain autism to them, and
we just told them autism isn't necessarily a bad thing.
It's just a different way.
Of thinking, right right exactly now, some autistic people had
issues with major meltdowns. How did that work for you?
Did you have any major meltdowns or difficulties of that
during your life?
When I was younger, I used to throw those kinds
of pants. So I can't really go into the details
of them because I hate thinking about that time. Because
we did get dark. I needed second Firm four chances
before I got the help turn my life run and
get stressed and anxious about things, but it doesn't escalate
to a point that foes, tankferoms and meltdowns go to.
And I think people need to understand that people with autism,
they all grow out those meltdowns. They'll get the resources
they need, especially if they're high functioning. They just need
a chance in time. I used to have these kinds
of fits. I needed second form and fourth chance. You
just need to give them a chance.
Sure, right, So what do you do with things that
might be a little out of your comfort zone? But
some things that you need to do to expand so
it allows you to open your mind to newer things.
So one thing that's out of my comfort zone currently
is driving a car and getting a license really don't
get it. I've had a permit for a couple times
now that's expired. Have been super stressed to take it again,
especially now that the book's online. Maybe it's because of
the safety measures on the road that I definitely got
to work on, Rovin. But with everything else, I'm easy going.
I like giving things us, especially we're out in my
comfort zone.
Yeah, yeah, that's great. So is there anything that I
haven't asked that you might like to discuss so that
listeners get a better appreciation for what you're trying to do.
Yeah. What I am is a guy who sees mistakes
that were made in the world throughout history and wants
to correct them. I think the world is super divided
right now, but if we unite together and realize we're
all the same and put our differences aside, we could
make the perfect society.
Okay, all right, So that's your goal of trying to
help make that happen.
Absolutely.
Yeah. So now that we're wrapping this up, tell me
what's the rest of your day looking like. Do you
have any plans for the night, well, my younger siblings.
Or having a sleep over down in the basement where
my rooms. At nights, I'll be making served or save
and get to bed on time. But nothing else. It's
just chilling watching YouTube and getting ready for a hike tomorrow.
Okay, so what are you hiking?
My don't know Vitorio yet. All I know is it's
most likely going to be ten miles.
Okay, good. So so you do a lot of exercise.
Do you do running or hiking or what's your what's
your pastime?
One of my past times is running. I used to
be in my high school's cross country team, but I've
been really getting into weightlifting this year.
Okay, So do you have a dorm at school? Do
you live at home and travel back and forth and
do that? I have a dormant and roommate at school.
I'll have one again this year. Hopefully he's not as
bad as Blast one was. So there was this roommate
I had that would fape in the dorms and to
a point where I just didn't veg out in the
dorms anymore unless it was to.
Sleep and get dressed. I mainly hung out in the
little lands area they had to do my studying, and
true story, I actually slept in there a couple of
times without knowing it.
Yeah, So what do you see as some of your
strengths now? And then what do you see as some
of your weaknesses you got to work on.
I'll start up with the weaknesses because they make the
strengths better. I would say the social stuff for the
weaknesses had got to work on, and mainly my ego
a little bit. I can get overly passionate about certain
things and that pushed my endorphin button as my dad
likes to call it. But I've been working on that
and not being on a high horse so much. And
the positives is I'm extremely grateful. I've been learning to
embring who I am this year. I have a cause
that I believe in now and I'm incredibly passionate.
Yeah that's good. That's really good. That really puts everything together.
So how can people follow you? Are you on social
media and all the platforms out there?
You can follow me on Facebook at King Ronald, follow
me on Instagram at sebby three posts here all one word.
Check out my written works on sports column at Kaden
Macwin k A D I N mce E l W
A I M. And you can check out my past
interviews by type in my name, same as the sports
Calm when kten Macwin.
Well, good, Yeah, I really appreciate you coming on. It's
been great.
Thanks for having me.
Oh, it's been my pleasure. Thanks for taking the time
out of your busy schedule to listen to our show today.
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