Putting the pieces together

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I'm sure this is a very common experience, but I am reveling in it, and wanted to share that good feeling.

For much of my life I've felt an affinity for autistic people, but I grew up before the rise and fall of Asperger's as a separate thing. When I was young, no one took very seriously the possibility that I (or indeed our whole immediate family) might really be autistic. Consequently, neither did I. And until very recently, I didn't know much about autism at all.

Now I am utterly amazed at how many seemingly random things in my life beyond special interests and social communication issues may all be connected by this thread:

--my curious combination of encyclopedic recall and absent-mindedness
--my inability to visualize, poor face recognition, and poor memory of places
--my low prioritization of household and personal maintenance
--my difficulty falling asleep
--my attachment to agreements and plans
--my fondness for classification and sorting things
--my speechlessness when I am blindsided
--my very trusting nature
--my tendency to procrastinate
--maybe even my tendency to motion sickness
--and several other things I've currently lost in working memory

It's a beautiful thing isn't it! I know the feeling. It's pretty thrilling. I am so happy for you.

Yep. Happened to me, too. Suddenly, so much in my life was clear.

It's still murky for me. There are a number of common autistic traits that I don't have, but there are others that have really done a number on me, and I can't imagine what else they could be, besides due to ASD.