Profile: Darius Smith

By AmberLynn Anderson

Seeing, hearing, and feeling things may be part of a normal day for most. But for 18-year-old Darius Smith, there are restricted or repetitive patterns of behavior. Smith has Asperger's syndrome.

He said he entered the Roanoke Times Minority Workshop with high hopes to improve his writing and possibly have a second option to his aspirations to become a civil engineer. He likes to write poems, some of which he has titled “Villanelles” and “Quatrains.” Smith said that he wishes to write an autobiography some day.

Asperger's is very particular disorder with linguistic and cognitive development, according to the medical Website webmd.com. This disorder belongs to a group of childhood disorders known as pervasive development disorders, the Website says. Most Asperger's patients view the world very differently. The exact cause of the disorder is still being researched, the Website said.

Smith was nine years old when he was diagnosed with the disorder. He said he sometimes feels his condition can hold him back, but that has not deterred him from being productive. He has people who support him, and family members to whom he looks up to, he said.

“My mother and I support each other in most choices that are made,” he said.

Smith said he feels that a lot of family members look up to him. For example, he said his three older sisters look up to him because of his success.

Smith said that he learned about the Minority Journalism Workshop after his mother saw an advertisement for it when she was using the newspaper to make papier-mâché. She told him she thought it was a good idea for him to go, he said.

He also said he expresses himself by relating to other people.

"I want to help others to reach their goals," he said. “I respect people who are trying to do some good for themselves."

Smith attended Memorial Middle and Benjamin Franklin Middle schools, he said. He described what it was like in school and how he was bullied or picked on for being so different.

But has remained optimistic. "I can do normal things," he said.

And he offers advice to other young people who have been diagnosed with the disorder:

"Just don't let it bother you -- use it to your full advantage. Be happy."

For more resources on Asperger's syndrome go to www.aspergersyndrome.org.

Profile: Tiffany Eng

By Victoria Liu



Over various dinner tables, eighth graders sit with teenagers in high school for 8th Grade Night: an annual event where recent band recruits meet kids in their instrumental section. Tiffany Eng was one of those eighth graders, and she remembers being timid and trying to impress the upperclassmen.

Now, as a senior at Hidden Valley High, she believes that band has taught her teamwork skills and how to step outside of her comfort zone. She admits her feelings of being afraid, but notes that becoming an adult will allow her to gain new freedoms and experiences.

“I let my race down by not learning how to play piano,” Eng jokingly remarks as she chuckles, a reference to her Asian heritage.

Instead of chords and harmonies played over ebony and ivory, Eng talks about her experience in marching band and Roanoke Youth Symphony. She plays the trombone, an instrument not often chosen by girls.

Her older brother’s experience, Spencer, as a trombone player in high school affected her decision between taking up clarinet or trombone.

Band isn’t just an important matter to Eng. At a school where football is a large part of the culture, it is inevitable that band becomes a part of school identity.

Band is exhausting but worth every minute, Eng said. “‘One band, one sound,’” she said, quoting the movie Drumline to refer to the family atmosphere that exists in spite of different instrumental sections.

She recalls a memory of her band attending a school game last winter.

“During the game my entire body was numb…my hands were shivering,” she said.

The team wore elf hats and fuzzy scarves they had received from goody bags, huddled together in packs to stay warm.

No matter how much passion Eng has for band, there are moments where it is difficult for her to be motivated because of its repetition.

But she may not play trombone in college, she said.

However, as section leader of brass, Eng wants to spread love of band to everyone else. After all, she asks, if no one else appreciates band, then what is the point in playing?

Still, there is no classical music on her iPod. She listens to Paramore, Taylor Swift and Forever the Sickest Kids.

Tour of Carilion Roanoke Memorial

Photos by Jared Soares.