What does Neurodiversity mean?
Having different brain-wiring.
Maybe it’s ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia.
Or interoceptive, sensory, or auditory processing differences.
Or Tourettes, or epilepsy.
Or some strange combo deal – a pinch of this, a dash of that – that causes you to struggle, makes you process the world in a way that’s a bit more difficult for you than it is for most.
Sometimes it’s an impairment, sometimes a strength. Communication and life difficulties can abound. But sometimes, it bestows glorious strengths and gifts.
In sum? It’s complicated.
But there is one thing Neurodiversity always means. And that is courage.
Choosing courage, over personal comfort.
Because for ND people, that choice has to happen every day.
They need to find the courage to overcome real physical and emotional discomfort, in order to live in the world.
So, courage is not just those folks who cliff-jump or scale mountains or do extreme sports or launch themselves into important ethical and moral fights. Although those are all cool things.
Courage is also an 6 year old boy with sensory issues, steeling himself to remain calm and present while he squints for hours against the flickering lights of a kindergarten classroom.
Courage is a 16 year old who walks their own path, despite the snarky remarks that relentlessly follow them down the high school hallway.
Courage is a 12 yr old autistic girl who needs to collapse in a darkened room after school for hours every day, in order to have the strength to get up the next morning and face it all again.
And again and again and again. For years. For a lifetime of living in the world.
Courage is a quality that goes hand in hand with Neurodiversity.
Courage over comfort. It’s a choice neurodivergent people have to make in the world every single day.
(It’s also a choice the characters in my books make. Because that’s how I practice courage. If I can create characters who are brave, then maybe that will teach me how to be braver, too. )
