Penny is an artist who uses her creative side and imagination to express herself. She’s now using this opportunity with ASDNext to not only do that through art, but also blogging. For much of her life, she felt like the “quirky sidekick” stereotype in a movie, always doing what others expected of her. When she was diagnosed with autism later in life, that all began to change. This news was life changing and she knew it was time to rewrite her story. She’s no longer on the sidelines of this so-called movie that is her life, she’s the director, leading-lady, or whatever other part she needs to play to figure out who she REALLY is! Every small step toward authenticity is now a victory for her in this new stage of life.
View all postsCereal Bowls and Blogging
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Saturday night was getting pretty wild. In my left hand, a bowl of Chex cereal; in my right hand, folded laundry. The cereal was my tasty incentive for the tedious task of folding and putting clean clothes away. Both actions were becoming a struggle to complete simultaneously. And I felt the pressure to fold faster to eliminate soggy cereal.
“What a weird way to complete a chore,” I thought. “Maybe this dilemma is blog-worthy.” My introduction blog was already out of the way. I had been wracking my brain for additional material ever since. Finishing the cereal and tossing the laundry aside, I got on my laptop to type this scenario into something engaging and funny!
My fingers hovered. Gears were turning, but maybe I wasn’t ready to write. I needed some more preparation. ASDNext provided me with an informative welcome packet for my introduction blog. I re-read it for the millionth time.
Still feeling slightly unprepared, I watched 6 different YouTube videos about blogging. After that, it was off to Google to search topics such as “what do people expect from blogs,” “what is the purpose of blogs,” and “writing a good blog.”
Studying and learning a new interest is comforting to me. I could analyze blog writing for hours, days, months, and even years. It can be a slippery slope that derails productivity. Researching was secretly just a delay to starting. At this point, my level of preparation HAD to be enough to carry me through the assignment.
And yet, my fingers still hovered noncommittally above the keys. Something else was holding me back. I was nervous. Anyone could stumble across whatever it is I write. I wanted to make a good impression. I wanted to say the right things while fulfilling my own expectations. Being casual but funny. Sounding clever without sounding TOO forced. Should I go back to researching the perfect tone?
All of these thoughts were cluttering my brain. A tug of war between preparation and perfection. Inspiration was slipping through my fingers, leaving me with nothing. Pausing to slow down my overthinking mind, I ask myself, “what small step can I take to grow into the blogger role? How can I progress?” An answer was starting to wiggle its way through the mind maze. Forget the laundry; I could write about this. I could write a blog about the struggle to write a blog. Wait, could I do that? Was that against the rules of blogging? Shh, stop overthinking.
Trying it out meant going from nothing to something. It’s not what I set out to write. Still, it managed to check all my personal boxes. This blog about my writer’s insecurity and hesitation was honest, casual, and possibly amusing (ok, maybe only to me). Writing is a lot of work. More work than putting away clothes. Hopefully, this gets easier over time.
Penny
