Hello, is my simple greeting,
that I'm giving, upon meeting.
On this planet, I am living,
feeling unsure of the motions.
Always, I feel like I am sieving,
through the humans' silly notions.
Wandered here, after a detour,
hope my greeting is alright.
My goal was only not to bore:
to try to keep it light.
For anyone wanting to read more:
I put the poem because I feel awkward writing about myself. I didn't plan to write more. Then I decided, okay, what's the point of trying to be social if I say an awkward poem and run? So... here goes.
I'm a woman in my 30s. I was just diagnosed with "mild to moderate autism" last month.
Frankly, I'm irritated that it took so long to be diagnosed, as my symptoms were not always mild. As a child, I was put into the gifted program, had hyperlexia, and was thus seen as just "bright and quirky." Me not making eye-contact? Quirky and inattentive! Me arguing when the teacher got something wrong? Quirky and an authority problem! Declining the lead role in a play when it was based on the Greek Gods, because Artemis was my favorite Greek goddess even though she was a bit part, and I thought that Hera was awful in her own mythological personality? And I could tell you all about either of the goddesses, and especially how much I disliked Zeus? Quirky kid! Licking my glasses to clean them? Quirky and gross! Wanting friends but being terrible at making any? Quirky, and just not trying hard enough to fit in! Sometimes taking things too literally, even as an adult? Naive and quirky! Aaaand so on.
Anyway, it took a friend being diagnosed as mildly on the spectrum to tell me to get tested. He told me that he thought that I was definitely autistic, and more so than he was. I looked up information on autism in March for the first time. After learning about autism, I also learned that yes, I probably am autistic. When the therapist confirmed it, then I wasn't surprised. I'm just surprised at how I was dismissed as weird and/or as "not trying hard enough" for so many years.
I came here because I'm hoping to interact with others like me. I heard the website mentioned in a YouTube video on autism. As a new user I can't post links, but it was "Explaining Asperger's/Autism - Christian A. Stewart-Ferrer." Then I browsed the forums here, and decided to join. I've often complained to people in my life that "I feel like an alien" so... yeah, feels apt to join in.
I have many interests but struggle with depression, and often feel that I don't explore my interests as much as I'd like to. Current ones are animals, plants, teaching myself more about coding (C#), learning more about autism, writing, word origins, and psychology.
My current avatar is from a photo that I took myself. It ties in with my animal interest. I like to photograph wild animals. It's a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher/Polioptila caerulea. I tried linking to bird information but, again, as a new user I can't post links. Wikipedia has a nice entry on it, and so does the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. I think that it's a very very cute bird.
(Polioptila caerulea: polios (Greek) hoary/gray + ptilon (Greek) a feather/wing, and caeruleus (Latin) blue.)
My username is a play on words: I'm online so I'm an "e-person", and I'm kind of a corny person. (I also just like acorns and oak trees.)
04 Jul 2019, 8:48 pm
