UNMASKED: Snippets & notes from a lifetime collection of journals (pre-diagnosis).
Advocating for autistic acceptance.
October 6, 1993
Time is very incoherent to me here. Time to pay for not registering and taking care of school stuff earlier. No regrets …
Kalpita Pathak
Age 18
COMMENTARY:
Between school and social struggles, laundry was a near impossible feat. No wonder I had to go to the corner drugstore every couple of weeks for new socks and underwear (a financial strain, sure, but also a creative executive-function-accommodation)!
Lazy. Flaky. Disorganized. Irresponsible. Oof. Executive (dys)function is real. I tried: school planner, desk calendar, sticky notes, days-of-the-week index cards, bulletin board …
I had zero support and accommodations. It took me over fiver years to graduate from college as a full-time, year-round student. Every semester, at least two Ws (withdrawals after the deadline). Poor relationships with professors. Nonexistent ones with advisors. Anxiety & shame.
Autistic people struggle with executive function. We are often denied support because society still views autism from an ableist perspective. We are deemed either not autistic enough to need support or too autistic to have goals and dreams.
Follow this link to an informative article about what the autistic spectrum actually means: