Last Friday, I learned that I was featured for two different things, it was a reminder that the one was amid my struggles last summer and one highlighted how I understood sleep and was able to turn my life around. Through it all it taught me to remember my struggles while celebrating the achievements that I have made in my life.

Through everything that I have been through in all my life, it can be hard to believe that I am deserving of the things that I am acknowledged for because I believe that I do not deserve to be highlighted while I was hiding myself from what I was doing behind the scenes of my mental health struggle. I was just surviving and not doing what was right. I was putting on a show to believe that I was doing what I thought was right because I could not experience what everyone else was doing, but a year later to the present moment, I did discover that I was able to do the same thing while being at my best.

As much as I don’t like to admit it, I have achieved so much throughout my nearly four decades of living and as much as I dislike saying that the past six years have been very challenging, it has taught me so much about the dangers of not taking care of myself along with understanding who I really want to be versus who I do not want to be. I know that through it all, I am strong and resilient and can do whatever it takes to get through the struggles that I am facing and that I can be as fierce as I want to be fighting for the best quality of life that I want to have.

Last week while I was having those two achievements, I was at times experiencing some anxiety as it comes from time to time and as much as I want to give into avoiding the challenging moments, I fight through them and do what I need to do to be well and fight the challenges that I need to overcome. As much as I can, I work at bouncing back from adversity to be resilient and overcome my struggles that I am facing because I have been through so much in my life as autism and my other challenges are no small feat.

But accepting the accolades is also no small feat because I just do as I need to do in life to be as successful as I can be and have the quality in life that I desire. I know that I have put in the work for it and there are many people who have moved mountains to ensure that I was able to have what I needed along  the way and as hard as it can seem from time to time, it is important to always remember that they were the ones that ensured that I was provided with the opportunity to succeed in the right environment with the right kind of support that I need to be successful in life.

It can be hard to believe that while I was able to see that I can do great things, that I have been through and overcome so much. I know that if I put my mind to what I need to do, I will overcome the struggles that I face along the way no matter how hard they may be, I am resilient and will overcome them because I know that I am able to do it.