Jeremy lives in Columbia and hopes soon to be on his own with little assistance. While this 20-year-old hopes to get his driver's license soon, he rides the city bus for now. This transportation allows him to get to the Mizzou campus to volunteer where he offers his time to clean classrooms.

"I'm a fast worker," said Jeremy.

From the looks of him, you can't tell Jeremy has autism. He has a high functioning form called Aspergers. Doctors didn't diagnose him until he was 16. Before then, Jeremy said he had complications stacked up against him from doctors not knowing much about autism.

"They put me on several drugs and misdiagnosed me several times," said Jeremy. "Those were probably the most catastrophic years of my life, being misdiagnosed, being on those drugs, being treated poorly by the school, of their ignorance of autism, of my condition."

Jeremy lives with his mom Robin. She has raised Jeremy and his brother on her own because Jeremy's dad is not in his life.

"It bothers him a lot," said Robin. "I can tell when he has been rallied up thinking about it. He paces and talks to himself... it does, he has affected him."

One of Jeremy's challenges is dealing with social situations. He uses local resources to help him adjust his social behavior.

"I am trying to train myself to do things that normal people can do. I am trying to train myself to learn basic social boundaries. Basic social rules, social interactions, like personal space, topics of conversation," said Jeremy.

"Jeremy really wants his independence to the point where he gets ahead of himself now because he is so high functioning, that could be a blessing but it could also be difficult because he wants to do so much and he is not accept yet to face the world," said Robin.

There is much more to Jeremy than just his autism. He is a whiz with computers.

"I like computers. I work a lot on them. I have taught myself. I run tests. I run trial and errors with computer hardware and software," said Jeremy.

"His autism does play a part in his life, plays a big part, but it is not who he is," said Robin. "He is someone who has dreams and aspirations, who has many skills, who has a kind heart, who likes to volunteer, likes to help people... that is who Jeremy is."

Despite the difficulties he faces, Jeremy has no tolerance for those who want to "cure" autism.

"It's insulting to me because it is saying, you know, when people say, 'I am not going to try to understand this, I just want to cure it.' When it is actually something neurological. It is hardwired into your brain. There is nothing you can do about it. That is just the way it is. They just want a cure, they don't want to understand it. They don't need to treat it. They don't want to deal with it. It is a life long thing," said Jeremy.

With the growing number of autism diagnoses, Columbia does have resources to help autistics. For more information about local organizations Jeremy uses, you can click on the web extras on the side.