I used to worry for far too long about the things I thought were important. I knew certain things needed to be taken care of. But I worried about not being incapable of doing them. I have eventually learned to have faith that things will come in due time. I trust that things will happen the way they need to. Meanwhile, I am capable of taking care of myself as needed.

Autistic people are often overthinkers and worriers. They think about their routines falling in line in a way that just has to be. They can sometimes be unwilling to be flexible. This inflexibility occurs with situations that change or alter what they need to do to follow their routine. After years of not caring for my mental health, I realized something important. I have had to let that thought go. I needed to let things happen just as they are. I also have to have faith that things will work out to be the best that they can be.

Sometimes, we worry when things are not as we want them to be. We also avoid beneficial things to live as we wish. But sometimes, we just have to have faith. We must trust that we are not going to be so hard on ourselves. Things will work out in the way they need to. This allows us to get the best of both worlds. We can experience our routines in the way they are meant to be. We can also meet our obligations.

When I was a teenager, one of the biggest things that I was taught was the need to be flexible. That is something that I still have to work on every day. When I was learning that skill, so much was happening in school. I had to change my routine at a moment’s notice. I learned to adapt to what I had to do. In fact, I believe this made me willing to eat lunch in the cafeteria. This change occurred in my last two months of school. It also made me capable of navigating class changes with ease and no need to leave before them.

As I transitioned into living independently, I learned that while being stable, things often not always happen as expected. This has been more obvious in the past two years. My life can still change with a phone call. It highlighted my need to be mentally stable. I realized that I can’t project into the future. I also can’t expect things to be the way that I want them to be. I must be willing at times to give some latitude to things as they arise.

Granted, it can be hard to believe that things will work out when we do not have tangible evidence. It is difficult to trust that they will go the way we plan for them to. But over time, I have learned to be flexible. I have also learned to have faith that things will work out as needed. Everything will be fine.