All my life I have known that my brain must work differently than most around me. By age 6 or so I made it a regular thing to lie out in the dewy grass at night and just take in all the stars above me. There just seemed to be many more stars back then, but I guess it was because we hadn’t lit up the nighttime sky as much as we do now.

I would dream of what the future holds for me. When I was six, the future was ten, but by the time I was a teenager, it included the old age of 40 or maybe even more.

I was in my sixties when I discovered that I might be autistic and that explained SO MUCH. It meant there wasn’t some broken part of me I needed to fix. I finally realized that compared to neurotypicals, it was normal for me to diligently think almost everything through. Of course there are both positive and negative parts of overthinking, but I kinda think the positives far outweigh the negatives, if you have the energy to accept that state. Being who I am means it’s okay that my brain lights up like a Christmas tree all the time when one thought suddenly inspires 100 connected thoughts.  Becoming aware of my autism traits finally allowed me to accept my brain as it is. I didn’t have to worry about what was going on between my ears.

I think this very trait of thinking things through helped me tremendously throughout my corporate career and beyond, and is still going full speed, even as an OLD guy. One thing I am especially happy for is that my artsy side is finally getting its share of my very active brain.