Travis was a trombone player in school. He tells the story of how the trombone helped him get through some of the social situations that he found himself in because of autism. Travis used the trombone as his special interest and coping mechanism to deal with the social rejection and isolation of autism. Travis was the best trombone player at his school because he practiced every night for hours. Travis always racked up the most practice time of all of the students. He spent four to five hours every night practicing. He always practiced when he should have been doing his homework in other classes but it did not bother him and he was able to get most of his homework done during the school day when he had a little free time or down time in each class. Travis was in several music groups in school. In middle school Travis was in the band and jazz band while in high school Travis did marching band, concert band, jazz band, and show choir back up band. Out of all of the groups Travis ever played in he considers his experience in the Varsity Singers back-up band to be the best musical experience of his entire life. The choir was so much better than the band at Huntington North High School and all of the kids knew it. There were always many more kids in the choir program than there were in the band program and this made it difficult for the band to compete in their class because their classes were made up of school size. The marching band was not very good as the directors had little to no motivation to work hard at being good. The show choir on the other hand was one of the top five to ten show choirs in the country. We were really good. Travis talks about the experience of being involved in show choir as a member of the back-up band in this informative book about what playing trombone was like for Travis. Read this book to find out if Travis still plays today for fun or if he retired and hung it up. Here is an excerpt from the book. "Trombone was my special interest of autism and it is what got me through high school socially. I had a lot of trouble socializing and making friends in high school. It was very challenging for me and I had to keep myself preoccupied with something in order to keep my brain off of all the social isolation. It was like the trombone became my best friend. It really helped me cope because I was able to communicate some of the feelings I was having through music and that was an awesome thing. Music is a form of art and a way of communication. When I play the trombone I am sending a message of what I am feeling. Sometimes I play sad music and sometimes I play happy and upbeat music. It really depends upon my mood as to what kind of music I liked to play."
About the Author: I'm Travis. I'm a 30 year old author of books about autism. I like football, basketball, tennis, hiking, music, rock, writing, reading, and talking. I have overcome the greatest challenge in my life. I no longer cope with autism I live happily with it. I have some really amazing friends and a truly inspirational and awesome best friend! Life had always been a struggle for me until I started taking responsibility for my own life and situation. I spent a long time wanting and expecting others to fix or improve my life and make it what I wanted it to be. Truth be known, I was the only one who could and can do that. Now I write books about autism and how I am taking responsibility for my own life. What a difference I've seen in life. Life is what we choose to make of it. I don't want to just be known as a guy with Autism. I want to be known as a guy who's doing something awesome with Autism! Travis is dually diagnosed with Autism and Schizophrenia.
