UNMASKED: Snippets & notes from a lifetime collection of journals (pre-diagnosis).
Advocating for autistic acceptance.
July 27, 1994
Why, what does a girl who was blessed with the incomparable gift of having a wild imagination do?
Kalpita Pathak
Age 19
COMMENTARY:
Autistic people are commonly stereotyped as lacking imagination. Yet so may of us are artists, writers, composers, actors, dancers, singers. Even those of us who end up in science and engineering are creative (how can one design a research study without thinking outside the box? how can one build a robot without vision?)!
I am a writer and a scientist. I use logic and creativity in both fields and often combine them in my work.
We may not present our imaginative skills the same way as neurotypical people do but that doesn’t make those skills less valuable, less real, less valid.
There isn’t one right way to imagine. To create. To play. To exist. The world would be dimmer without the bright light of our innovation and artistry shining over it.