Severe test anxiety haunts me. I hate exams of any kind. Like many people, I feel sick leading up to any test and I feel uncertain of my knowledge. I worry for weeks before a test, during the test, and for the time after the test until I receive my…
The Autistic Me
The Autistic Me has been silent for much of 2019 because so many things are happening (mainly good things) that I don’t believe are appropriate to share until those things are finalized. We’ve been parents since October 2015. It became official this year, when the adoption of our daughters was…
Whenever I would speak to groups, they’d ask if I have a special diet. The answer was always a firm, “No way!” Gluten free? No thank you. Casein free? Nope. I love baking and eating, especially cookies. Eating cookies requires milk. I love my grains and pastas, too. Well, so much…
Many of the autistic writers with children I’ve read were diagnosed later in life. For some, it was the diagnosis of a child that led to their diagnosis. These autistic adults had “Aha!” moments as they tried to help their children obtain appropriate supports and services. People commenting on the…
The first autistic lawyer in… The first autistic actor to… The first autistic scientist specializing in… The first autistic…. The moment I read that phrase, I know the rest of the story is sloppy journalism and probably inspiration porn — those feel-good stories about how amazing it is that “someone…
We rely a lot on the reliability of various Internet service providers. We expect our broadband service to function at a reasonable speed every minute of every day. We expect any “essential” services for our businesses to be online and functioning. When Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or any other…
Time for my annual rejection of Autism Awareness Day and Month. No thank you, we’re all overly “aware” of autism. There are puzzle-piece car magnets and bumper stickers in the parking lot I use at the university. Local businesses have the “light it up blue” posters in their windows. Local…
As a blogger and podcaster, I missed most of February and March of 2019. This academic year has overwhelmed me physically and emotionally, and I admit I’m not up to the workload required of a full-time instructor with 140 students. The expectation that college writing instructors can and should have…
Podcast Episode 0025; Season 02, Episode 14; February 26, 2019 Unabridged Press is changing media for good (double meaning intended), expanding and elevating digital media, first, and primarily by creating high-quality audio podcasts about topics, people, and places previously underrepresented. A respect for the environment, investors, work partners, and society…
Podcast Episode 0027; Season 02, Episode 13; February 8, 2019 Too often I hear people suggest that education, especially higher education, is somehow the ideal career path for autistics. It might be good for some, but education has proven to be an impossible path for me. If I had focused on…