As someone who wasn’t diagnosed with autism until her mid-40s, I often struggle with what it means for me to unmask. What if people don’t like who I am without masking? How even am I masking? These are just a few of the questions that someone who is a late-diagnosed autistic person must battle with [...]
A little over a year ago, I started to wonder if maybe I was autistic. Not one to let things go (also known as hyperfixation), my exploration led me to reading scientific books about autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and memoirs by autistic people, listening to various podcasts about autism, and looking up resources and information [...]
Alternate title: I'm just a girl, standing in front of her work, asking you to be more neurodivergent-friendly. As I have been learning about my own neurodivergence (with both autism and ADHD), I have been slowly but surely peeling back all the things that I have done to make it in a world that is [...]
Note: "Becoming" in the title here does not refer to the fact that I suddenly "became" autistic - if you're autistic, you've been that way since birth. But in this case, realizing it late in life, I feel that I'm truly becoming my best self knowing about my autism. A little over a year ago, [...]
Note: Spoilers ahead. If you haven't watched the full Buffy series and still plan on doing so, I'd skip this post. Go ahead, you have my permission. Today is Buffy's birthday, so what better day to write about what has long been my favorite show on TV? I was in college when Buffy the Vampire [...]
"Are you OK?" What is it about that magic question that always gets to the heart of the matter for me? Someone can ask me how I'm doing, and I can fib away any bad feelings with no issues. In fact, I have a few ready answers just in case such an event arises: I'm [...]
It's the time of year when everyone is talking about intentions. Call them what you will: intentions, resolutions, goals. Several times in the past week, people have asked if I have any intentions for the new year. Each time, the first thought that popped into my head was, "Survive." I don't know who first decided [...]
I have a confession: I actually like waiting. Not all waiting, this is true. For instance, I do not like to wait when I have ordered new clothes, and the package is taking forever to arrive. Or when I'm interviewing for that perfect job (like my current gig), but it takes them several weeks to call [...]
Unless you've been under a rock lately - and hey, I wouldn't blame you if you were - you've probably been hearing lots about the television series Ted Lasso. The show follows the quirky and cheerful Kansas football coach to England, where he coaches a different kind of football. The show has won many fans [...]
It’s been a thousand years since this pandemic started. It has often seemed like if something can be harder, it will be. Being a parent during these trying times has been no exception to that. Even as lucky as I am – with a teenager instead of a toddler, a job that allows me to [...]
