🎃 When My Brain Just Can’t Let It Go Today at work we had a customer come in with a jeep that he had turned into a rock crawler. He said he had a code for a downstream O2 sensor, then told us he had removed his catalytic converters. I explained that he would need someone to reprogram his ECM to work without them. He didn’t want to hear it and said, “Well, it didn’t have a code for months after I did it.” I tried to tell him that you have to drive enough miles before the ECM even realizes something is wrong, but he just brushed it off and left. Thirty minutes later, I was still talking about it with John. He finally asked, “Why do you and Miranda not leave stuff in the past? You both just keep talking about people or things that happened for days instead of letting it go.” I stopped for a second and said, “I can’t speak for Miranda, but for me, my brain loops when something bugs me.” That’s the truth. When something doesn’t make sense, ...

Stepping Forward, Quietly but Strongly Jump to Section: • Life Lately • Learning to Listen to Myself • The Quiet Battles • What’s Helping Right Now ▶ Life Lately Life lately has been a mix of stillness and storms. As an autistic person, the world often feels too loud, too bright, and too fast. I carry those moments of overwhelm in my body and mind, but I’m also learning how to honor them instead of fighting against them. There are days when I feel drained just from existing. The sound of voices overlapping, the pressure of expectations, or the weight of unspoken feelings can leave me buzzing inside — like my nervous system is running on high voltage. In the past, I tried to push through, but I’m realizing that survival isn’t the same thing as living. On the other side, there are days filled with small but powerful victorie...

Why Do So Many Autistic People Look Younger Than We Are? It’s something I’ve noticed in myself and in others in the neurodivergent community — we often get mistaken for being younger than we are. I’ll be working, joking around, or just smiling off into space, and someone will say, “You look like a kid again.” At first, I thought it was just me. But the more autistic people I met, the more I saw it wasn’t just a coincidence. There’s something deeper going on. So I started digging into it. Is it neurological? Is it sensory? Is it how we show up in the world? Turns out… it’s kind of all of the above. 🧠 Neurological Expression Autistic people often express emotions, tone, and body language differently. Our faces may be more neutral, animated, or expressive in ways that resemble younger people. Some of us smile big, use playful tones, or stim with joy — and neurotypicals read that as childlike. But really, it’s just authentic e...