I still remember in 1st Grade being confronted with the greatest concept in the universe: Art Class. Why couldn't every class just be Art Class?

One day I scribbled a picture that completely baffled all the adults...

I drew the most amazing treehouse I could think of. It was like an entire apartment in a tree. It had a dish to pick up all the TV stations, and various other gadgets.

My teacher and mother were baffled when I explained "in the future, this will be a house for homeless people."

"A house...for homeless people?" They repeated it a few times, in hindsight trying to make me realize the contradiction of words.

But its still not a contradiction to me. And the more time that passes, I can't think of a childhood story that I could say is more on-brand.

And I did end up turning every class into art class. Unless we were doing a worksheet, I was always drawing. This being Minnesota, they were probably passively-aggressively waiting for my grades to fail from inattention before they raised the issue. But my grades never failed.

Although, one time I got up and started sharpening a pencil while the teacher was talking. She had to explain that this was rude and I should wait.

Now that I'm adult, I think a lot about how those adults used to interact with kid-me.

It's been awhile since I've tweeted about mental health, lol, so allow me to put this out there: I think the main reason I was never evaluated for autism is because my grades were good. Things like that were so taboo back then, they didn't raise the issue unless it was a problem.

A few years later, a counselor did find it a little odd that I never played with other kids at recess, instead following the same repetitive path on the play equipment each day. But when she talked with me privately, I think she was fishing to see if there were problems at home!

I hope one day for a world where neurodivergent and/or queer kids can get the proper information to understand themselves sooner in life than I did.

Also, where adults don't think wanting to house the homeless is weird.