Winner: What has Squidoo taught you about life?

Thank you, Kylyssa, Katinka, and AJ for responding to the Question Of The Week!

This week, our winner is... Kylyssa. ...Congratulations!

Kylyssa's response to the QOTW (What has Squidoo taught you about life?):

I have Asperger Syndrome, a type of high functioning autism. That means that I find it almost impossible to interact with people using the spoken word. My difficulty making normal-looking eye contact and body postures makes it hard for others to see eye to eye with me in more ways than one. I look odd, I behave strangely, I'm like a cat trying to imitate an octopus. So people are afraid or upset or uncomfortable around me. They put up a hard spiky shell and behave as if they don't care, which, to me, makes them seem uncaring.

Squidoo has taught me that writing has a way of cracking through what seem to be uncaring exteriors to caring hearts underneath. When speaking online, whether through a lens or on the forum, people react to it like I'm a person, an equal, not a cat trying to be an octopus.

I can speak with the spoken word but I cannot communicate. In writing, I can communicate and on Squidoo, I can do even more, I can converse! If I write a magazine article, I am communicating, too, but it is not a conversation. Squidoo makes writing a conversation - and the things I've learned in those conversations are wonderful!

I took a chance and wrote about my experiences of homelessness. I did this elsewhere and got some abusive comments and a few lukewarm encouraging comments but the Squidoo reaction was different. I got an outpouring of support and an inbox full of people asking what they could do to best help the homeless. People wrote me asking if they could use my words to help homeless people through their church, homeless shelter, soup kitchen, or with their own two hands. People also asked how they could help me.

So, I learned from Squidoo that though speaking terrifies me I can have conversations with thousands - and they are well worth talking to.

Here are all of Kylyssa's lenses as of today:

• An Atheist View
• Ask an Atheist
• Atheist Spirituality
• Do It Yourself Tulip Wedding Flowers
• Florist Tips On Buying, Ordering, Arranging, and Caring For Flowers
• How I've Coped with Aspergers
• How to Make a Cute Skull Cake
• How to Make a Fondant Trilobite
• How to Make a Sandy Beach Cake
• How To Make Decorating Fondant for Cakes
• How to Make Fondant Seashells
• How to Make Fondant Starfish
• Is Overpopulation a Myth?
• Keep Cool, Save Money, and Conserve Energy
• Kylyssa's Fondant Cakes
• Kylyssa's Love Poetry
• My Health Care Issues
• My Love Affair With Fondant
• Pet Party Safety Tips
• Rupert Does Cute, Silly Pictures of a Ginger Cat
• Saltwater Aquarium DIY
• Should Atheist Ads Be Allowed?
• Solutions to the Problem of Homelessness
• Some Reasons People Become Homeless
• Sometimes I Get a Little Short
• The Ten Most Popular Wedding Flowers and What You Should Know Before Choosing Them
• What Evolution Isn't
• What I Learned While Being Homeless
• What to Buy if You are Homeless
• What You Should Know Before Getting A Porcupine Puffer
• Why Homeless People Don't Use Shelters
• Writing From a Homeless Heart

Thank you again, ladies!