Redoing☆Childhood

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...

In September of last year I moved to London for university. Cycling seems so much more common in London than my hometown of Birmingham and I often noticed the bikes that were around and available for the public to use. Admittedly I'd gotten pretty out of shape over the extra long, lockdown-lengthened holidays we'd been having (not that I was ever partically in shape in the first place) and was looking for more fun ways of excerising.  There's a saying that goes, "It's just like riding a bike!" which basically means that even if you don't perform a particular action for a while you'll be able to get back into it easily. Despite the saying, in the past that hadn't been the case for me with cycling; I had to relearn the skill about 3 times when I was kid. I would learn while I was away at a summer camp or something then I'd go home and not really have the opportunity to do it again for the rest of the year. Then, when I went back to camp again the...

This isn't my first blog and will it be my last? Who knows? So here's a story I'm almost tired of telling at this point; I have autism. A common 'symptom' of autism is what's known as special interests. What are special interests then? Special interests are a particular topic, thing, person etc. that a person with autism will develop a fixation with, often causing them to neglect other interests or even necessities in favor of this one thing that seems to demand all of their attention. Special interests aren't always a bad thing. The image of autism that's often painted in media afterall is of the autistic person who may have poor social skills or be lacking in other areas but their almost 'obsessive' interest in a particular subject has led them to become an expert at it, allowing them to achieve great success. For a lot of autistic people though, this can be far from the truth. What happens when your special interest is something other people d...