It's almost come full circle

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I'll get to what I mean by the title in a sec, but first, I want to say something about when I visited my father. My dad's a cool guy. Very dependable. A good man. I love him. We actually connected quite well on my last visit to him a few months ago. I had a few AS driving moments, and he actually talked me out of an emotional breakdown/meltdown when I walked right into a moment where my AS really let loose and shined. My dad is great.

But one of the things he said in that conversation is that a lot of things he always wondered about me as it pertains to my choices, and behavior, attitude, the things I say, and who I am, suddenly made sense when I explained about my AS/HFA and what it is so far known to be. And that meant a lot to me, that he didn't gloss over it. He acknowledged that I am who I am. And that go me thinking. How much of what I did, not just the quirky things, but how much of those problem moments that I had with my friends and family, and work were driven by my AS/HFA?

And this brings me to the title. It's almost come full circle.

I'm the oldest in two circles of friends. I have now become the go to person for a variety of things. I am the moving expert. I am the towing expert. I am the car advice expert. The is this a good idea person. How do you do the crafts you do. I teach people how to drive stick shifts. I come through at the last moment unexpectedly and solve problems in ways people were afraid were going to ruin holiday dinners as another example. And that's not what this is directly about.

This is about dealing with my friends, who are a lot like little children much I feel like my parents dealt with me. I see me in them. Not my AS self, but in generaly my younger self. Several don't communicate worth a crap, are undependable, and sometimes downright unreliable even if they are nice. They are all NT, but they all act like I did at age 15 with my parents, only now it's between me the older person, and them the young child. I'm not really annoyed like this, but it gets surreal at moments when this happens, and It amuses me because now it's like I'm in my fathers shoes with me going, what the heck are you thinking, that's a bad idea, or taking care to instruct a less experienced person how to do things because no one else will.

So it's weird. I feel that life is going full circle. I don't see this as the same as having children, because I can always hang up the phone, or walk out the door on them with little to know long term consequence, but it's a step in that direction of having someone you are responsible to if not for.

Any thoughts or input are welcome, but I just had to share this.

I occupy more or less the same niché. I'm not what you'd call prosperous but I'm a fixit type in the extreme. Someone who parks his Saab headfirst into a snowdrift and forgets it until later just to get a good space. I use my mom's Corolla for double-clutching practice. Rescuing my party animal friends is a monthly/weekly occurrence.

I think this really speaks to the biological & evolutionary significance of HFA; we work on the problems at hand until the sum of the benefits implied keeps our lives moving.

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos

Congratulations, you made it to maturity. Many never do. And I'm not talking ASD/NT, just people in general. It does keep going though. The broadening of experience and awareness doesn't actually end until you die.