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Hi and thoughts
Mar. 1st, 2018 11:21 pmHi everyone, this is my first post here on this journal! I'm K (or Vita if you have too many Ks in your life), I'm a white, cis, asexual and aromantic US college student at a historically all women's college (we have lots of nonbinary/gender non conforming people, and if any trans guys transition while they're here, they can stay), I have ADHD and I probably give off a picture of having my life together more than is actually the case, I love dragons, books, fantasy, science (especially biology), libraries, Tamora Pierce, Leverage, ace/aro characters in media, language(s), ancient things (especially of the ancient Greek, Latin, or Egyptian varieties, and a whole range of other things. I'm also a complete nerd. Please respectfully let me know if I've done something wrong or offensive or if I haven't tagged for something.
I was having some thoughts based on reading some of recessional's awesome posts about mental health/disability/neuroatypical brain stuff, and I was going to comment over there in reply to something I wrote, but couldn't find the post and remembered I have a space to put random thoughts. I'm realizing several things, but one of the more prominent ideas that recently popped into my head was that since I got to college I've been a lot more comfortable with intrinsically/instinctively thinking of myself as at least a little bit disabled and as someone who has different capabilities than other people and that's totally cool, and I can work with and around that to accomplish what I need.
I was diagnosed with ADHD around 4th grade and I have a counselor person for organizational/ADHD management things who I've been seeing since, I think, close to the beginning of high school, but it feels different in college. I think there are several factors to all of this: having friends who were unapologetically diabled, who had mental health issues that they acknowledged and talked about and had accepted as really part of them (there weren't any people like that at my high school who were open about having mental health issues), the fact that colleges on the US are required (I think) to have some kind of disability office, and ours is actually pretty good and tries to make a community, especially for first years, the fact that I was now encountering other people with extended time and different room accommodations for exams, as opposed to in high school where I would take at least part of the test with the class and then finish at some other time that I arranged with the teacher and where I for the most part tried to hide my extra time because it wasn't "normal", the fact that I'm in control of my life in college, and I have time to do things that aren't homework and that I can plan out my day and when to do things how I want (and that I don't have all my classes every day), and the fact that there isn't a really any busywork and there's no grade checking system that my mom is checking, so if I mess up a little thing, or several little things, it's ok.
I apologize for the huge run on sentence, I'm on my phone so I can't actually see the whole thing and I tend to write long sentences anyway.
I was having some thoughts based on reading some of recessional's awesome posts about mental health/disability/neuroatypical brain stuff, and I was going to comment over there in reply to something I wrote, but couldn't find the post and remembered I have a space to put random thoughts. I'm realizing several things, but one of the more prominent ideas that recently popped into my head was that since I got to college I've been a lot more comfortable with intrinsically/instinctively thinking of myself as at least a little bit disabled and as someone who has different capabilities than other people and that's totally cool, and I can work with and around that to accomplish what I need.
I was diagnosed with ADHD around 4th grade and I have a counselor person for organizational/ADHD management things who I've been seeing since, I think, close to the beginning of high school, but it feels different in college. I think there are several factors to all of this: having friends who were unapologetically diabled, who had mental health issues that they acknowledged and talked about and had accepted as really part of them (there weren't any people like that at my high school who were open about having mental health issues), the fact that colleges on the US are required (I think) to have some kind of disability office, and ours is actually pretty good and tries to make a community, especially for first years, the fact that I was now encountering other people with extended time and different room accommodations for exams, as opposed to in high school where I would take at least part of the test with the class and then finish at some other time that I arranged with the teacher and where I for the most part tried to hide my extra time because it wasn't "normal", the fact that I'm in control of my life in college, and I have time to do things that aren't homework and that I can plan out my day and when to do things how I want (and that I don't have all my classes every day), and the fact that there isn't a really any busywork and there's no grade checking system that my mom is checking, so if I mess up a little thing, or several little things, it's ok.
I apologize for the huge run on sentence, I'm on my phone so I can't actually see the whole thing and I tend to write long sentences anyway.
