Neurodiversity: A Whole New World
The Color To It All
I’ve always felt like an outsider in this world full of “normal” people with “regular” brains. I’ve felt like some cartoon version of a human living a fraudulent life, attempting to fit in when all I do is fit out.
But the discovery of a word, of a community I long to explore, has opened my eyes to the invaluableness I offer this world. Neurodiversity.
I have a neurodivergent brain living in a world that normal people have created with thick lines and boxes and rules made to keep those of us who think differently from feeling like we belong, like we’re a part of something, too. But we are. We are the glitter in the glue, the sparkle to the dullness, the sheen to the shine. We are the rounded edges of non-conformity, the splash of color in this black and white world. We bring the beautiful melodies and minor keys and claps of symbols as an exclamation that we, too, are beautiful, bright creatures of this world. We, too, are deserving of success and love and joy in a world all too ready to label us as “abnormal”.
I am an adult woman living with ADHD. I live with anxiety and major depression, too, but those seem to fall on a different scale, a separate spectrum. I live at the intersection of disorders all designed to set me up for failure and yet, somehow, I thrive.
I’ve begun to thrive in my own creativity, a well so deep it may never run out. These are my gifts to offer up on a silver platter to the world, should the world finally accept them and me.
