WELLS — Matthew Chase, a senior at Wells High School who will graduate on Sunday, has had a very successful high school experience. He’s third in his graduating class of 110, he ran cross country, played unified basketball, was a trombone player in the band, took Advanced Placement classes as well as college courses at York County Community College in Wells and participated in a high school quiz show.

In the fall, he plans to attend Florida Gulf Coast University where he will study clinical laboratory science and Spanish. He plans a career as a medical lab researcher.

But the future didn’t always look so bright for Chase.

At the age of 2, he was diagnosed with autism. “It was more pronounced when I was younger,” he said.

“When I was little my parents weren’t sure if I could drive or go to college,” Chase said, and prior to attending Kindergarten at Wells Elementary School he attended a therapeutic preschool for a year.

However, he said, “I proved the naysayers wrong. … I always had faith in myself.”

In November he received his driver’s license and is looking forward to the warm weather of Florida when he attends college there in the fall. “I have total confidence I will do well in college,” Chase said.

Chase has high functioning autism, which he speaks openly about, which offers some challenges in school and other areas of his life.

His biggest challenge, he said, “is trying to repress the myriad thoughts in my mind. It’s very hard to get complete silence in my mind. There’s usually some song playing in my mind.”

But Chase is very much an optimist and doesn’t let anything stop him from pursuing his goals and making the most of what school and life has to offer.

Chase said he enjoyed his time at Wells High School.

“It’s fantastic,” he said. “I like the tight knit community. You get to know your teachers. … You form closer connections in a smaller community.”

Chase said he especially enjoyed classes in foreign languages, “which helps you think in a different way; in biology, “I think it’s fascinating learning how life functions; and history, which he also finds “fascinating.”

Participating in a high school quiz show was fun, he said. “I felt good about myself when I got one right.”

And, Chase said, he especially enjoyed participating in unified basketball, in which people with and without intellectual disabilities play on the same team.

“It’s a celebration of everyone,” he said. “It makes us feel we belong. (For) me and other kids with disabilities it feels like there a place for us at Wells High School.”

While there is much he’ll miss about Wells High School, Chase said, he is very much looking forward to the future.

“I’m most looking forward to the freedom I’ll have,” he said. and to learn how to live as an adult and picking out my own schedule. I’m very excited to meet new people from all over the country and the world. I’m interest in learning what it’s like to be a clinical lab researcher.”

Chase has overcome more obstacles then most people to get to the point in his life where he has had a successful high school career and is looking forward to attending college in a few short months. He has some very simple advice for success in school and the future for others that has served him well, “don’t think about the negatives.”

— Managing Editor Dina Mendros can be contacted at 780-9014 or dmendros@journaltribune.com

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