I have family members who are autistic including one cousin who has Asperger's and they are pretty high functioning and super smart. Luv them and will protect them in a heartbeat. I'm extremely close with the cousin with Asperger's and we have extremely intellectual conversations about life, politics, music, etc. He's in college majoring in Political Science with a minor in Sociology and even has a girlfriend that he's known since 2nd grade (they started dating when he was a freshman in high school and have been together ever since) she is wonderful to him and it's awesome to see how much he's grown as an individual. I always tell him how proud I am of him.
