I have always struggled because of my autism. But I also have a gorgeous universe in my mind, so many colors and sensations and connections and delights, that I know are precious gifts of autism. My depths of feelings, my immense capacity for love and compassion, my hyperintelligent brain, my beauteous way of seeing the world—that is my autistic way. But that part was hard to see from the outside, from my body disconnected from my core mind, from my unreliable and minimal speech.
