Me & My Mind

words Mitchell Darcy

My name is Mitchell Darcy. And this is my story. Now, I know what you are thinking. ‘Ugh! This is just going to be another one of those boring, old stories with some narrator doing one of those voiceovers.’ Well, guess what? You’re right but trust me. You might enjoy this one. First, let me tell you about myself. I am in the young adult age range (21 years old), I enjoy playing video games and writing stories, I live with my mother, father and my cat (most annoying cat in my life, to be more specific) and I have autism spectrum disorder.

The neurological learning disorder that completely rewires your brain and makes you struggle to know or do something without further understanding. You know the one. I am writing this story to tell you about the things that go through my mind, including what my life would be like as if it was a video game, what my job is like, what my future as a writer could be like and if there are other universes out there, with a different version of me in each of them. For those that watch superhero movies, you guessed it. This is my origin story. However, there will not be an ‘after-credits scene’ at the end. Sucks, huh? Well, don’t panic. Because you just might enjoy this one.

Born with autism, I always struggled to understand everything without having specific instruction and details on what I had to do and always performed in a systematic order that I felt comfortable with, whether it is in a chronological order or in an order of easiest to hardest, like following a timetable or schedule of lesson and activities. In school, I was never able to complete certain lessons and make friends really well because my autism stressed me out in situations like exams and assemblies. And it made me unableto speak up and develop social anxiety. I spent time with different tutors and homework clubs to allow me to finish my homework and practice being better at social interactions and class participation. As I studied through primary school, my autism became easier to control and my anxiety levels calmed down, allowing me to do better in my lessons. In high school, I pushed through my autism obstacles by understanding more about what autism is and I studied as hard as I could to get to where I am now. I grew outside of my comfort zone by trying new lessons, attempting new challenges and skills and by asking my teachers and peers for help or how their days have been.

Today, I am proud of my autism and I use it to push through many challenges and obstacles to continue doing good things.

And this allowed me to push my fears aside to be more socially communicative and became more comfortable asking for support when I needed it. After graduating high school, I am now in control of my autism and I am becoming better at my studies and time management, which has become really handy for my university studies now. Today, I am proud of my autism and I use it to push through many challenges and obstacles to continue doing good things.

As a massive video gamer, I have always wondered what it is like when I see everyone around do almost the same, exact tasks on different days. This makes me wonder if I am the main character in my own video game while everyone else around me, including my family and friends, are non-player characters (NPC’s) doing a repeated set of activities each day, like going to work, watching television or playing on their phones. And then there’s me. I am the main character in a game where I am playing in first-person mode, where I cannot see my body, unless I am standing in a mirror. But I can instead see my hands, feet and what objects I am using and hold. Every day, I perform a different set of tasks, as if I am given a list of missions to complete. These missions include ‘complete university studies’, ‘go to work’ and ‘wash dishes’. And as I do these things, my experience changes and I become better at these tasks, as if my character was levelling up after gaining experience points for completing a mission. During this, I believe that the world around me is a video game and that with the world changing, so too will my skills and experiences.

For my job, I am working as a casual retail worker at Woolworths. My hours are random, depending on how busy I am and how I am feeling, whether I have studies to complete or if I feel sick or in pain. Apart from that though, I am proud of my job. Sometimes, I work as the trolley collector, where I go into the car park and collect

the trolleys that people leave everywhere. Seriously, what is wrong with people? Once I collect the trolleys, I return them to the collection bay inside the store so that the customers can use them. I also work on the front end registers, helping customers pay for their shopping and packing their bags for them. I also work out how much change I give to the customers when they pay or ask for money out, which means that I have to rely on math and deductions to make sure it is correct. It is difficult during the COVID pandemic and with my studies becoming more important but apart from all that, I enjoy this job because it allows me to get good money to help pay for the bills and give myself some spending money for another video game or new clothes for work or everyday life. I am respectful towards my fellow team members and the customers that I serve and I am doing good work, helping the store when I can.

In the future, I hope to become a successful author and publish my own stories. Right now, I am writing short stories for fun, in the superhero and crime

genres. For my inspirations, I research, watch, read and play lots of video games, movies, TV shows and books to help me create my own characters and franchises. Sometimes, I write fanfiction stories based on my favourite franchises, including Marvel, Star Wars and video games like Assassin’s Creed. I do not publish these stories because of copyright laws but they are still fun to write about regardless. For my writing career, I am studying creative writing at university to help improve

my writing techniques, word choice and sentence structure. I have learned how to write flash fiction stories, different forms of poetry, paraphrasing and paragraph breaks. With these techniques, I have improved my writing for my assignments and my stories. After my studies, I will have gotten my degree and I will become a better writer, utilising the techniques that I have learned from my courses. Once I become a published writer, I am enjoying writing because it allows me to get away from the stress of work and studying while also turning my creative ideas into stories.

I hope to create novels and stories that will interest readers and fans of specific genres, including crime and dystopian novels

I have always been a big believer that our universe is bigger than we think and that there may be other universes out there, with other versions of us in each of them. So I believe that there could other versions of Mitchell Darcy in a different universe, each with a different behaviour, profession and lifestyle. For example, in one universe, I could be a police officer, solving crimes, analysing evidence and putting criminals in prison. And in another, I would an evil dictator ruling a dystopian society, driving people into homelessness and slavery while I stay protected with riches and a powerful army of robot soldiers. I believe that in the future once scientist develop technology to travel to other universes, I would visit some of these dimensions and learn about what kind of life they are living and who they are. Maybe they are good people with good families and lives. Maybe their worlds do not have a COVID pandemic. And maybe they could encourage me to continue to do good things in my current life and never give up. It is a mystery that has been on my mind for a long time. Today, I still wonder if there are other worlds beyond our universe and if they are worth visiting.

In the event of an apocalypse, whether it is a zombie apocalypse or a nuclear wasteland, I could be one of the last survivors on the planet. I would avoid all of the hoarders and raiders by hiding in an abandoned station or supermarket and have enough supplies to lower my hunger and thirst and weapons to keep me safe. It would be difficult to trust anyone because of how everyone is trying to survive in an apocalyptic world, killing each for more supplies and better weapons. Before the apocalypse begins, I would need to put my body through dangerous survival and weapons training. I have learned about surviving the apocalypse in movies and video games but once it does happen, you are going to need more skill and survival than you realise. And sometimes, you have to make tough choices to keep surviving because like I said, nobody can be trusted. There will be survivors that will be greedy or pretending to be desperate and steal everything from you, mostly your weapons and supplies, leaving you for dead with nothing to defend yourself. The apocalypse is a dangerous world, regardless of what kind it is so my advice? Do not trust anyone. And don’t go outside either.

In the end, I am proud of the person that I have become today, with my studies, my job and my lifestyle taking good turns. Despite everything that is happening, including COVID, more study assignments and more work shifts, I am working and studying harder than ever and never giving up, even at the most challenging times. Everyone that has supported me on my journey, my family and friends, I thank them for supporting me. I am writing this to tell not only myself, but to anyone that reads this story, to always encourage yourself to keep going and never give up, regardless of what it is you are doing.

I believe that if you do this, you can do good things in your future. I know mine is just beginning. I am ready for what comes next in my life and I will always tell myself to look out for bigger opportunities and new experiences. My name is Mitchell Darcy. And this is my story.

Thank you and goodbye.