“I’ll never forget the time my roommate had a sleepover with some of her friends when I was about eight. The morning after the sleepover, my mom brought out an arts and crafts kit for us to do. As we were working on it, one of us had the grandest idea to throw glitter into a nearby spider’s web. It was all fun and games until our dog walked up behind the web and stuck her face into it, catching the giant pumpkin spider on her forehead. She walked towards us and we all screamed and ran, whereas the dog thought we were playing some game and followed us around. My mom came out, worried out of her mind after hearing our blood-curdling screams, only to find the dog chasing us around with a giant spider. She couldn’t stop laughing while the three of us locked the dog outside and wouldn’t go near her for the rest of the day.”

“Being totally honest, I’m really proud of where I am today. It took a lot of work to get to this point, a lot of tears and a lot of emotions, but it was worth it. This is the happiest I’ve been in years and I’m glad I finally am figuring out who I am. Of course there’s always more to learn, more growth to make, nobody is perfect. But just in the last few months I’ve learned so much more about myself and knowing those things makes life a lot more tolerable. I can finally feel comfortable in my own skin, I don’t feel so alone in the world, like I’m an alien in a crowd of humans. I’ve found people like myself that I can really, truly connect with, I’ve discovered more about how my brain functions and reacts and adapts to the world. There’s much more work I need to accomplish though, many more trial and error, shot in the dark chances I need to take, but for the moment I think I can say I am thoroughly happy with who I am.”