Finding Honesty in Storytelling
I'm a neurodiverse queer man staring at the underside of 40, and here is what I know about myself.
I spent a great deal of my life hiding fundamental truths about who I am. In order to do that successfully, I had to pay attention to every detail about how I moved through the world and to mimic the people I sought to emulate. I became a master storyteller just to blend in, to survive. I lost parts of myself during that time, but I also learned to walk in others' shoes. I gained empathy and perspective.
Now I move through the world more fully myself than ever before, and I bring that empathy, attention to detail, and perspective to the work of telling other people's stories; both real and fictional. I'm still growing and learning, but now I know my identity and how my mind works aren't obstacles. They're superpowers.