From PRX, this is the moth radio hour. I'm Jennifer Hickson.

When people ask me how to find a story from their lives, I often suggest that they think of a time when they felt out of place at odds with the world

or in a situation where they were uncomfortable.

In this hour, we'll hear from three people who have felt out of step in one way or another.

I first heard John Elder Robeson on the radio talking about autism and his book

Switched On, a memoir of Brain Change and Emotional Awakening.

I had never heard anyone describe the inner workings of a brain the way he did, and I

knew I wanted to hear more about his life. He's an intriguing and friendly man and the more questions I asked the more twists and turns he revealed.

He told this story at a show in Boston where we partnered with public radio station

WGBH.

Here's John Elder Wilson. Wilder, Robeson. Well, there I was years before, 15 years old. I didn't have any friends. I was failing every one of my classes at

Amherst High School out the Western part of the state. You know I never knew what to say or do. I couldn't tell what other people were thinking.

I always seemed to say the wrong thing and I thought I said something nice to make him smile and instead I pissed him off.

And it was the same with my schoolwork.

My teachers would give me work to do and either I didn't understand it and I couldn't do it at all,

or I understand it, understood it all too well.

And frankly, it was stupid and you wouldn't do it either.

And I told them that, and they just did the only thing they could,

and they flunked me.

And anyway, I could see, I wasn't getting anywhere,

and I resolved to drop out of school and do something else.

And this was the 70s and I had a guidance counselor and in his supportive way he says to me boy you drop out of

...