“You Should never be ashamed for being who you really are or what you like. Everyone else will deal.”

~Dustin

Lately, I have been coming to terms that I am autistic and while I understand that will never change, the biggest part is learning to just be more of myself when I am free to do so.

For far too long when I am able to do so, I often bottle up some of the quirks I have from living a life of constantly being corrected or judged for things that I do or like as part of being autistic . I have even had shame in some things becuase I had never felt that it is perfectly fine to accept things for what they are, even as my close family has. Still, part of me lives from the days of old where I was constantly corrected or redirected to believe that being autisitic wasn’t normal or acceptable. It is also learning the other identies that I bear are just who I am and that I do not fall into mainstream society because that is maybe a part of being autistic, but that it is just fine and I should not feel shame or disgust for the way I feel or the things that I like.