Autistics Thriving Through Transitions

Transcript

Autistics Thriving Through Transitions

October 25th, 2026

Episode Introduction & Preview

Welcome to Today’s Autistic Moment: A Podcast for Autistic Adults by An Autistic Adult. My name is Philip King-Lowe my pronouns are he/him. I am the owner, producer and host and I am an Autistic Adult. Thank you so very much for listening.

Speckles Bruder is with us today to talk about how they went through the transitions of living at home, to living at and going to Minnesota Independence College & Community. Speckles graduated last Spring and is going through the transitions of living their life without being in college.  Speckles is AuDHD and will share with us what transitions are like for them.

Come join us for the episode Autistics Thriving Through Transitions on Today’s Autistic Moment.

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Segment 1

This first segment of Today’s Autistic Moment is sponsored by The Autism Society of Minnesota, known as AuSM throughout Minnesota’s Autism Community. As Minnesota’s First Autism Resource for more than 50 years, AuSM serves the whole state, the whole spectrum for the whole life. Visit AuSM at ausm.org.

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I am excited to announce the theme for season 7 of Today’s Autistic Moment. In 2027, the theme will be Robust Autistic Intersectional Advocacy. 2027’s theme will caveat off of the theme for 2026, Autistics Thriving, Not Just Surviving.  The theme for 2027 picks up from that and says, “Okay, let’s take how we are thriving, and put it into action through Robust Autistic Intersectional Advocacy.”

The Key Ideas are:

·      Robust: The work is ongoing, well-informed, and action-focused-not limited to awareness messages. It seeks concrete improvements in access, rights, services, safety, representation, and accountability.

·      Autistic-Led: Autistic people should be heard, included and meaningfully involved in the decisions that affect their lives. Self-Advocacy includes both individual choice and collective action over public policy, media representation, and the ways society views disabled people.

·      Intersectional: Advocacy should not treat “Autistic people” as one identical group. Autistic transgender people. Autistic people of color, Autistic immigrants, and Autistic elders may face barriers that cannot be addressed by a one-size-fits-all approach.

·      Advocacy: Cross movement solidarity recognizes disability rights as civil rights and connects Autistic Advocacy with efforts against racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, and other systemic harms.

I am seeking Autistic Adults over the age of 18 years or older to be guests to talk about topics that will emphasize this theme in 2027. If you are interested please go to the Be My Guest Page on todaysautisticmoment.com. 

Give to the Max Day is coming up on November 19th. Give to the Max Day in Minnesota doubles donations to Minnesota non-profits. In 2025, Give to the Max Day raised $37.8 million dollars for 6,430 organizations.  Three outstanding Minnesota organizations that impact Autistic people generously sponsor Today’s Autistic Moment each year. Beginning on November 1st please go to givemn.org/gtmd and donate to The Autism Society of Minnesota, Minnesota Independence College & Community, and Looking Forward Life-Coaching. The link is in the transcript.

After this first commercial break Speckles Bruder will talk with us about Autistics Thriving Through Transitions. 

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Commercial Break I

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Segment 2

Philip King-Lowe

Welcome back.

Speckles Bruder is a 2026 MICC graduate who is originally from Buffalo, Minnesota. They currently live independently near the MICC campus with a roommate and work at the Crayola Experience at Mall of America.

Please join me as I welcome Speckles Bruder.

Philip King-Lowe

Speckles Bruder, welcome to Today's Autistic Moment. I am so happy that you took time from your schedule to join us today. Welcome.

Speckles Bruder 

Hi. Thank you for letting me be here. How are you doing?

Philip King-Lowe 

You're welcome. I'm doing well. How about yourself?

Speckles Bruder 

Doing good.

Philip King-Lowe 

Yeah. Good. All right. We are going to talk about a great subject about Autistics thriving through transitions. This is a great time to talk about this subject because we have many Autistic AuDHD individuals who are transitioning. Either they've transitioned from living at home to living in a college community like MICC. And we have students who are transitioning through their first year since graduation of not being in school anymore, not necessarily having assignments, but now having to do life, as we say, without the well, without the college classes and studying and books and all that to occupy our time. Now we have to occupy our time with work and personal care and lots and lots of stuff going on. So let's just just introduce this topic a little further. During times of transitions, Autistics, AuDHD people usually go through some radical routine changes that can be challenging to navigate. And so Speckles is here as a graduate from Minnesota Independence College and Community, and Speckles is going to talk about her transitions that she has experienced in her life and that sort of thing, and so this is really going to be a great Conversation. So, Speckles, please tell us a little bit more about yourself and the transitions that you have been through, and how that's going now.

Speckles Bruder 

Thank you. I, as a person, I love doing a lot of my art and hanging out with a lot of my friends, but it wasn't always like that for me. I was born and raised in Buffalo Minnesota. but being here in MICC versus being from Buffalo, I loved it. When I was first in Buffalo, I used to go to an old transition school way before MICC, and while the transition school was a good fit for some people, it was unfortunately not a good fit for me. It felt like I was stagnant, stuck in a sense, and it felt like a constant routine over and over and over again. And while sometimes constant routines are nice, it felt like any population of under 20k people. It didn't feel like a whole lot for me. Don't get me wrong. Buffalo is my home. Pride and joy will always be my home. But it felt like I needed to be somewhere else. Like something else was calling to me. When I first met MICC, it was Sienna that was at that desk in what we call transition track, which is essentially a place to look for things to do or places to go. And when I saw that, I thought, well, we might as well try. I didn't think much of it. I didn't think I needed to be there in the first place because there was nothing much to do for me anymore since I'm about to graduate at that time. But when I came to MICC, holy cow, it changed. I saw how big the area was. I'm like, this is huge. We, my parents, got lost trying to find the place.

Philip King-Lowe 

When you got to MICC, what was that transition like from the moment that you started with orientation and attending classes, meeting some of the new people you met, what was that experience like?

Speckles Bruder 

New. It's always new, but it was fun but scary. I didn't know who to make friends with. I personally I went straight to the community members, my classmates. I had some friends in my class, but I really stuck with the community members, and I first met some of my friends. I was very shy. I didn't. I was very closed off. But Transitioning from again a group, a small knit group of 20k, to now moving to a group of 30k, a little over 30k people, that was different for me. I will be honest. I didn't think I was gonna make friends here. I didn't think so. I thought I was gonna be alone, and then after a while I would go back home. But turns out that was not the case, cause look at me. That transition it normally would be extremely hard for any Autistic Adult or AuDHD adult, and for me, it was very easy for me to find a friend because all I had to do was smile, and someone would be drawn to me. My mom and a lot of friends like to say that I have a personality of a lighthouse. That my light shines very big whenever I needed friends, and when I am happy. So I made friends quick. The keeping was the hard part, cause I struggled to keep my friends, cause I have this overwhelming feeling of being blunt and honest, and I found that group of friends where they stuck with me thick and thin when I the first time that I was being my blunt and honest self, I shied away. I'm like shielded myself, thinking, "Nope, they're gonna leave me. This is it. I screwed it up. I'm done now.” But no, they stayed. They had said, "Oh, so that's how you feel. Okay, then we are still your friends. You know that, right?" Yeah. It definitely felt more refreshing to find people who had the same amount of personality as I did.

Philip King-Lowe 

Now that you've graduated from MICC and now you transitioned into the time after. What has that been like for you?

Speckles Bruder

It's a lot of fun. There is always new things around the corner, especially with working at Crayola. Holy cow! One, they've told me perks. Holy cow! I can go through the whole list. The biggest ones that I like of all the things in Crayola and working at the Mall of America, it was you get to have these quarterly meetings, which free food, yay, free food and free gifts and stuff, and there's also parties like this November on the first of November, I'm gonna have a Halloween party at my job, which most jobs that I ever had they didn't have parties like that. I love it. I love it. As for MICC, there's so many things going on, and we might have in the 5K soon. By the time this is published, we already are done with the 5K, and I'm heading to the mall with my mom and aunt and cousins to go Christmas shopping, which yay I meant to get them to go, yay having wait for that day. Of all those things, living on my own, that feeling, that overwhelming feeling, the feeling of those keys in my hand, that weight. When I had those keys in my hands, I looked at those keys and thought, "This is it. This is me being an adult." Sure, I have times where I question, "Am I actually being an adult? And I just need a little pick-me-up from my mom, and she tells me, "Of course you're an adult. Adulting looks different for everybody." But that feeling when I first stepped into that townhome, that place. One tears started streaming down my face because one who didn't start crying on their first day of moving to an apartmen? But two, that moment when I said, "I'm an adult now." It was one of the most liberating and one of the most emotional times of my life. It was a new chapter. We always have our chapters: high school, graduating high school, and going to college, and now being an adult, and I love that every benefit.

Philip King-Lowe 

I'm going to add a story of my own here because, and maybe you can relate and feel free to chime in when I'm done. I remember when I graduated from college. It was a moment of reflection on the incredible experience I had, but I also had this experience with me that now I get to get up every day, use the skills that I've learned, put them to use and make something happen. I felt so great about that. You know, I wasn't living in the dorm anymore. I wasn't going to cafeteria to eat lunch or dinner every day. I was just on my own. Actually, I lived with my mother for two years, and that was an adjustment in itself. But the point is, is that you know, I felt like almost like there was nothing I can't do, and yet I realized the one thing that I can't do yet was you know not having that college structure around me, 24/7, like I used to. No, no, the same people aren't around. They're not there every moment, and it was an adjustment. It was a real adjustment, and even where I was working at the time, You know, you know, I had those periods where I found something that, well, quite frankly, my college experience didn't exactly prepare me for. So I found myself meeting those challenges for me. At that time, I didn't know I'm Autistic. I was Autistic. I always have been, but I knew there were some things that didn't exactly make sense, and now I know why. Does any of that resonate with you?

Speckles Bruder

It definitely does.

Philip King-Lowe

Coming up after this next commercial break, Speckles will talk about how they are thriving in their transitions.

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Commercial Break II

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Today’s Autistic Moment has had a fantastic sixth season. My guests and I have talked about Autistics Thriving, and not Just Surviving in a time when Autistics are stigmatized more than ever before through pseudo-science and misinformation.  During this season, the guests and I have been speaking out about what our challenges are, and how we are still thriving by just being ourselves and using the strengths of Autism to impact the Autistic intersectional communities. 

In 2027, Today’s Autistic Moment will caveat from how Autistics thrive to Robust Autistic Intersectional Advocacy.  

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Segment 3

Philip King-Lowe 

Where do you see yourself thriving in your job? Where do you see yourself thriving in living on your own, renting a townhome? Where do you see yourself thriving socially with your friends and others? And can you elaborate a little on that?

Speckles Bruder 

At my job. Sharing my ideas. I will say this time and time again, and a lot of people know it. I like to be creative, not just in the sense of art, but also be creative in the sense of my ideas. I give out my ideas to some of my supervisors and team leads whenever they're struggling with something, I tell them, "What if we just move it over here and then rearrange everything?" I mentioned that to one of my supervisors, and he had said, "That is a great idea. I love that. Where did you get that idea from?" Because some of the ideas that I bring out in them, they thrive the most in. And an example of that is when we have an issue with a machine, or whenever we're trying to stock up on something, there is a phrase that I use whenever the machine kind of goes a little glitchy. I call it cat scratches because it looks like a cat scratched on it, and they like when I use that phrase. They love it, but that's where I thrive in the work area. In my apartment, I thrive the most when I am with someone. I'm sure you've heard of this before. Body doubling. If anybody has, and it's essentially um having a conversation with someone while doing something productive. So I would have a conversation with my friend, and we would talk about everything and everything while we are cleaning, and it works magic. I'm locked. That is where I thrive in that sense, and socially, again, I have to go all the way back to my art. If words fail and I can't verbalize what I'm trying to say, I say it through my art, and it works 90% of the time.

Philip King-Lowe 

Yeah, those were great examples. Tell me how you are thriving as you mix with intersectional Autistic individuals, like people of color or LGBT and other people, do you find yourself thriving with some of that?

Speckles Bruder

Yes. Funny enough, I grew up with a very diverse group of friends back in my high school days. I grew up with friends who were LGBTQ, friends who were Autistic, friends who are in all the wide spectrum of the rainbow and all that. But one of the things that still shocks me to this day is when I went to the Pride Parade. My very first Pride Parade with my two friends. Holy cow! It was amazing. I loved it. But when I first I knew, I also grew up when I came here. I grew up around with a bunch of people who were also Hispanic, Islamic. No, no Muslim. There's so many religions. Holy cow! And my roommate, who is Jewish, I grew up. I have a Jewish roommate. So, I feel like I've always been part of that. But when I went to that Pride Parade, it was such a culture shock. But at the same time, it was like this feels like home. That I felt welcomed. Like I didn't feel like I was being pushed, and it felt amazing when I first got that flag, the rainbow flag. I grabbed it and ran it across the street, and people like, and that felt so good. I loved it. Now I have that flag in my place. Yeah, that it definitely felt like I belonged there.

Philip King-Lowe 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me think. Do you have any final thoughts you want to add to this topic of Autistics thriving through transitions?

Speckles Bruder 

I want to thank you first. Thank You.

Philip King-Lowe 

You're welcome.

Speckles Bruder 

Yes, and Anna, I do want to also thank the MICC staff, everyone, for having me be here, letting me learn how to grow. I want to thank my mom and dad through the thick and thin, through the tough times that we've all been struggling and all that. I want to thank them, and mostly I want to thank my grandma. She may not be here now, but she is here with us in spirit, and I want to thank her for believing in me through and through. Because if it weren't for her and my family, I would not be here.

Philip King-Lowe 

Speckles Bruder, thank you for being with us on Today's Autistic Moment, and what a great conversation we've had, and we certainly wish you well as you continue to pursue all the great things that I'm sure life has in store for you. Thank you for being here.

Speckles Bruder 

Thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Coming up after this next commercial break, Andrea Paulet will talk about the incredible resource that is Minnesota Independence College & Community. Today’s Autistic Community Bulletin Board will follow.

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Commercial Break III

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Future Shows

Be sure to join my guest Dr. Mel Houser and I on November 15th for Thriving Autistic Healthcare. Dr. Mel Houser is an AuDHD individual and a medical doctor from Vermont. Dr. Houser will talk about healthcare for AuDHD people by looking at the whole AuDHD body. Mel brings in the issues of autoimmune system, nutrition, digestion, sleep, allergies, blood, and more into her practice to give her AuDHD patients the care they need. Mel will talk about the organization All Brains Belong VT and the importance of quality and complete healthcare for AuDHD people.

On November 29th, Elizabeth Duffy from Roots and Wings Therapeutic Services will join me for the episode Thriving Occupational Therapy for Autistic Adults. 

Thank you for listening to Today’s Autistic Moment.

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Segment 4

Philip King-Lowe 

Andrea, we just heard a great conversation with Speckles Bruder about Autistics Thriving Through Transitions, and now you and I, we're going to talk about some resources, mostly about Minnesota Independence College and Community.

Andrea Paulet 

Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm the marketing communications manager at MICC, and we're super proud to be a sponsor of Today's Autistic Moment. Our partnership is a really great platform for MICC participants to have the opportunity to voice their experiences with your audience. So we love having our participants as guests. Speckles graduated from MICC in 2026, which is our 30th year of offering programming to support Autistic and Neurodivergent individuals. Speckles is such a great example of the positive outcomes of our programs: living independently, socially connected on campus, always around talking to people, and working a great job in the local community. These transitions to independence can be really difficult for both participants and their families, as Speckles described. Which is why MICC programs are designed to meet you where you're at and work at your pace to achieve your goals. Speckles graduated from college program, which is living on campus, taking classes on independent living, career building, social skills, and then joined our lifelong community program with ongoing activities, supports, and events. We also offer other programs. Connect is our new social program based on UCLA's peers curriculum, and we also have career confidence, which is for job skills, and then we have a week-long summer program on campus as well. If you're interested in getting a feel for the MICC community, you can come join us on campus. We host a Neurodivergent-friendly bingo once a month, where you can feel safe and included while learning new skills, it's a great way to try out the campus experience and meet new friends who share experiences like yours. You can also learn more at micc.org. We have our Bulldog blog where we share success stories from Neurodivergent individuals, how they're thriving. If you're looking for inspiration for what's worked for other people, insights, we love to share when MICC participants are awarded Employee of the Month, or secure an exciting new job, win athletic or artistic competitions featured in local news. Our staff are also a great resource for information about living with a disability and what is available to you for support, either through MICC or other organizations or government programs. So visit mic.org to learn all about our programs and how we can help you achieve your goals. We have a program selector, so you can find out which one is best for you. And we hope to see you on campus.

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The Adult Coffee Club for Autistic Adults in Minnesota are held on the second Tuesday of every month (weather permitting) at Dogwood Coffee located at 2700 University Ave W. Suite 100 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Zip Code for your GPS is 55114. The Adult Coffee Clubs will begin at 3:00pm to 5:00pm on November 10th. December 8th.

Understanding Autism virtual classes are offered by The Autism Society of Minnesota. The next classes will be on November 9th, 12-1pm. December 14th, 6-7pm.

Register now to attend The Autistic Community Summit on November 7th, beginning at 9:30am to 3:00pm at Inver Hills Community College or Online.  The college is located at 2500 8th, St. E. Inver Grove Heights, MN. The zip code for your GPS is 55076.

AuSM is accepting applications for speakers now through November 6th for the Annual Minnesota Autism Conference in 2027. They are seeking speakers for subjects like AAC and Communication. Ableism. Aging. AuDHD. Current climate for disability issues. Dating. Executive Functioning. Guardianship. Grief. Gender. LGBTQIA, and more.

Go to ausm.org to learn about these and other social and recreational programs, educational events, counseling services and support groups at The Autism Society of Minnesota.

MNeurodivergent is a social club rooted in a vision of bringing Neurodivergent Minnesotans together to build meaningful connections.  Its core principle is to foster an environment where all are treated with dignity and respect regardless of ability or preferences. Go to their website mneurodivergent.org for more information, become a member, volunteer and attend their events.

Be sure to check out the events at Queermunity. Events include finding out about local LGBTQIA+ resources for those who have relocated to the Twin Cities on the 4th Wednesday of every month. Trans Health Insurance Enrollment. Fruit Salad Queer Open Mic on the fourth Thursday of every month. Crafting and Game Night on Fridays at 4pm to 8pm. Beats and Breath Yoga Based Movement Class every Saturday at 11am. Go to their website at queermunitymn.com to learn more about Queermunity and their many events.

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