What’s Passed is Past
Rachel blogs about her fear of missing opportunities because of waiting too long. In this case, she focuses on the choice of where and when to start grad school. Rachel comes to the conclusion that it is important to learn from the past but ultimately to look forward to new opportunities.
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The Importance of Having Something to Look Forward to
Last year, Rachel took an extended trip to Japan. She has many wonderful memories of planning the trip and being on vacation. She wonders if 2024 will have any big highlights like last year.
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National Novel Writing Blues
Rachel is taking part in National Novel Writing Month for the month of November. The goal is to write 50k words for an (ideally) brand-new writing project in a month. This blog cover the highs and the lows of this project.
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The Struggle to Truly Know My Limits
It can be so easy to be overwhelmed with thoughts like "what could have been "or 'what might have been" right before going to sleep. In this blog, Rachel asks herself "what if" she didn't have a disability or the support system she has now. How might this change her life?
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My Crowded Closet Problem
Fashion and clothing are a passion for Rachel. She loves the art of putting together a great outfit, one that she feels her best in. However, there's a downside to loving clothing as much as she does. Her closet and dresser are overflowing, always leaving her overwhelmed with too many options of what to wear or donate.
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The Imperfect Reality of Accessibility
Rachel recently went to this year's Philadelphia Pride Festival to celebrate diversity. She was excited to participate but let down by some of the accessibility measures, or lack thereof, that were put into place. This experience taught her that it's hard to be a proper celebration of diversity and inclusion, if you’re still excluding people.
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Not conforming to Gender
This month to celebrate LGBTQIA+ Pride month, Rachel blogs about her personal gender identity and what gender means to her in terms of being on the spectrum. She describes how her identity effects the way she dresses as well as the way she acts. She also writes about how she believes there is no right way to act like a woman and that no one should be put in a box just because society says so.
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A complicated relationship with love
Rachel share why romantic love is not straight forward for her, despite her fascination by the subject of love. Rachel recounts her past experiences with trying to connect with other people in a romantic fashion.
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The Holidays and Collecting Joy
Rachel's Holiday blog focuses on having special interests and gift-giving. She writes about her current special interest in collecting pins and how telling others about it makes it easier for them to select gifts by knowing what she likes.
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Update on my journey to teach abroad and knowing when to quit
Rachel shares the conclusion to her attempt to teach abroad in this blog and what she learned about herself.
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You Will Hurt People (and How to Deal With That)
Rachel writes how a build-up of resentments and misunderstandings led to hurt feelings for both she and her friends. She describes her confusion and her own hurt feelings regarding these interactions.
Read moreThe Balancing Act of Advocacy
One of Rachel's many roles is as an autistic self-advocate. She describes her reactions to a proposed resource page for an website that she was asked to review. She relays how this resource page reminds her of problematic language and concepts where progress is needed across the board for many Autism advocacy organizations.
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Attorney Woo and the Burden of Extraordinary
Rachel explains why she enjoys the current Netflix legal drama, especially its realistic portrayal of Autism.
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Invisible obstacles, the hurdles you never even knew where there.
Rachel explains her reasons and aspirations to live and work in another country. She also shares her experience with the unforeseen obstacles in her way to being hired to teach abroad.
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Welcome to our new blogger, Rachel
Welcome to our new blogger, Rachel! ASDNext is excited to include her insights as a young woman on the Autism Spectrum. In her introductory blog, Rachel writes about her life's successes and challenges, and shares that talking about her experiences as a self-advocate and her vision for the way she thinks things could improve, is a main goal for her as a blogger.
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