Written by Bethany Cothran

The smells of cafeteria food and teenage angst would be overwhelming to many, but to Soddy Daisy High School’s autistic ninth grade English teacher Hannah Wilson, the locker-lined hallways are more like home.

“[School] provided a really good structure for me and people with autism often need a lot of structure to keep them going or they get kind of off the rails,” Wilson said. “So I really like that structure and then I kind of fell in love with English.”

After a day of teaching, Wilson recognized that she has come a long way since she was first diagnosed with autism in seventh grade. 

“Finally getting that diagnosis was like an eye opening experience for me because like…other people experience the things that I’m experiencing,” Wilson said. “I’m not losing my mind, and I just need a little bit extra support in some places and some places are just not my area.”