- Work
- Family
- Brass band
The idea was to expand this a bit and get a bigger social circle, maybe even a friend. But it all went badly wrong and contracted rather than expanded.
I really did enjoy being part of the band, but they had a reshuffle and decided to offer me a lower position. I felt this might be because my performance in the run up to the last contest had been not as good. The reason I felt was that changes to the parts at the last minute had upset my playing of the part. This was autism related so I decided to tell the band committee about my condition in the hope that they might see some adaptation possible to improve my performance if they kept me in a more demanding role. This backfired badly and I got the impression that it just cemented their decision. Their reasoning was that my playing ability was not in question, they just want younger players. I felt that playing a lower part would stifle my interest in practising and make me a worse player so I declined and had to leave. There was just no way they were going to back down. I feel discriminated against, not just because of my autism, but also my age.
What I did not know was that several other people had been hit with the same argument and had left (five or six in total). They are having a real clear out and bringing in new players. I only found this out this morning after a sleepless night preceded by some self harm.
So now I have lost a third of of my social contact and am a step backwards rather than a step forwards.
