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Funny about learning not to be positive. In my family of origin there was an attitude that praise would make a person “get a swelled head.” That any good behavior or achievement should be taken for granted. Expectations should not be rewarded. So they ignored the good stuff and focused only on what I was doing wrong. Unfortunately, that’s how the world seems to work, more often than not.
I don’t get it.
It’s almost impossible for me to follow a conversation. I don’t understand what people are saying – I hear the tone more than the content. When I read, I get more information, because if nothing else, if I miss something I can go back and see what it was. Even then, I could read the same passage five times and still have no idea what it says. Depends on the type of writing.
Nobody sees how much effort is involved in being social. They assume if it’s easy for them, it should be easy for us. Then we run into that “what is wrong with you?” attitude. What’s wrong is that we see the world differently, not by choice but because we are different.
It helps to remind myself of my values and strengths, but it has to be visual, in my line of sight, like a personal coat of arms or mission statement that says This is what I’m about. Because if I don’t see it, it doesn’t exist. It can’t be in a notebook. I will forget.
Those early morning moments of silence are too short. It can take days to come down from being upset. Days. Not hours, not minutes.
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