Redoing☆Childhood

On Sunday, I wanted to get in some more practice on my skates so James and I went to the park. Not a huge amount of improvement since last time but I'm getting there. Watch the video until the end for the big finish!   James had a discount code for Matrix Virtual Reality, a VR arcade in Digbeth so we decided to book a session there after we'd gone back home to eat and drop off my skating stuff.  James had a lot of experience with VR and when we got there, he began chatting with the guy working there about all sorts of things I didn't understand (turns out the guy was a massive weeb as well and we got his Instagram lol). I didn't have much experience with VR aside from a couple of times that James had let me use his headset to play Beat Saber so it was all mostly a new experience for me. The first thing we played was a paint-balling game that James and I played against each other. There were random balls and other special objects around the area and you had to pick them ...

Yesterday my parents and I had to run a few errands in City Centre but since we hadn't had a proper day in town for over a year now due to lockdown and everything, we decided to make a whole day of it and looked around a few of the shops while we were there. I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to get some new skates as well, since the secondhand ones I had broke so after we'd done most of the things we needed to do, we headed for Sports Direct in the Bullring Shopping Centre. As we approached the entrance to the shopping centre, I noticed a shop just outside that I hadn't seen before. I don't know how new it was but it definitely hadn't been there the last time I'd been around that area and I thought it looked interesting so I decided to check it out. It was called Myga and actually consisted of two shops right next to each other; one that sold crystals, oracle cards, and other little New Age bits and pieces, and the main store that sold all sorts of...

I had a pair of rollerblades when I was a kid that were given to me by a family friend. From time to time I'd mess around on them, riding up and down the hallway in my house but I never really had the confidence or dedication to practice with them enough to actually get halfway decent. Over the last few years though, I've been seeing lots of cute videos on social media and the occasional skaters out in public so my interest in skating grew and I developed the desire to take up the activity again as an adult. I wanted to get rollerblades (inline skates) rather than quads as these were the types of skates I'd had as a child, plus I'd also wanted to take up ice-skating which is fundamentally the same procress as rollerblading. I did go ice-skating a couple of years back and really enjoyed it. Things did get busy however, and I haven't been since but I do definitely want to try going again.   A couple of weeks ago I bought a pair of rollersblades and a set of pads (knee...

Cheerleading My first encounter with cheerleading came when I was in my first year of secondary school. It was the first time I'd seen anything to do with cheerleading in the UK, before that I'd just considered it to be an 'American thing'.  I remember seeing a poster in the P.E. block at my school that advertised an allstar cheerleading club. I only considered it for like 5 seconds before my low self-confidence got the better of me and I pushed the thought aside. I hadn't even been diagnosed with autism yet but what I did know was that I was awkward and clumsy so there was no way I'd be able to do something as athletic and complex as cheerleading.  The type of P.E. sessions we did changed from term to term and around that time we were doing gymnastics. Gymnastics is a large part of cheerleading. The sport also includes dance and stunts. I absolutely hated any form of P.E. because in my mind I wasn't the least bit athletic, was terrible at sports, and plus ...

Over the past few years I've managed to overcome a lot of obstacles and do many things I never thought I'd be able to do as an autistic teen with a very low opinion of myself and my abilities. Such as, for example, going to university, moving out of my parents' house, and traveling. One area that I continue to stuggle in however, is finding employment and having confidence in my ability to find and actually maintain said employment. I was at college for about 5 years and in that time I completed several unpaid work placements. Since the placements were arranged through my college and it was a disability-specialist college that I went to, allowances could be made for my needs and I was able to work in very chill and autism-friendly environments.  Since leaving college though, I've been on the lookout for actual paid work. Many workplaces sport the 'disability confident' label with pride and are more than willing to welcome employees with autism and other disabili...

Around two or so years ago I discovered Menhera. So, what is Menhera? The word itself comes from the English words 'mental healther' and was inititally just a Japanese slang term to describe those who suffer with mental health issues. Eventually a kind of subculture formed around the word that focused on the creation of mental health-related vent art and from this a fashion style also emerged.  Menhera fashion - like the subculture it itself - quite simply focuses on expressing ones own personal struggle with mental health issues. Since it's quite a personal style and made to be accessible to all kinds of people regardless of any possible health issues, there aren't any specific 'rules' to the fashion. It's really about what 'mental health' means to the individual wearing the style. There are however, certain styles and themes that are popular, as well as lines that individuals are encouraged not to cross. Such as, for example, imagery that may be ov...