Happy New Year
Or whatever is going on when I finally post this
Dear Family,
I hope this finds you well or at least as well as can be.
It’s me, Jackie, your sibling, aunt, cousin, or friend who never calls or writes to see how you are doing and what you’ve been up to.
I wanted to let you know that I’ve always cared about you and how you are doing and what you’ve been up to. I’m just really bad at initiating conversations about it.
In fact, I’ve always been bad at a lot of things that require social skills. For example, you may recall me hiding out in my bedroom or sitting in a corner reading a book at family gatherings. Being a smarty-pants know-it-all. Dressing oddly. Being an uncoordinated klutz. Loving spelling bees and math. Never holding a job for longer than a few months. Having inappropriate emotional reactions. Remembering trivial details about random things that happened years ago. Or maybe just being an awkward weirdo who can never quite seem to act like a normal person.
Turns out, there’s a reason for it.
I have been a high-functioning autistic person this whole time. I even had an assessment done to officially confirm it!
If your reaction to this is not “Well, duh” then either (a) you’ve never met me or (b) you may want to watch a few minutes of this informational video, starting at around the 9-minute mark :
Or maybe this one:
Or this one.
Or this one.
Or this one.
Or, maybe you’d prefer to do some reading instead.
I think it explains a lot.
Anyway, enough about me. I’m going back to the safety of my hidey-hole now. Thank you for reading this, and I hope you also have a Happy Valentine’s Day, Happy Easter, Happy Independence Day, Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy Birthday!
Love, Jackie
PS It wasn’t Tylenol or vaccines, but it does appear to be hereditary. If you’d like to know who my prime suspect is for passing along this particular bit of DNA, just ask yourself if there’s someone you knew with a Xanax prescription who preferred to write letters instead of talking to someone in person. Still not sure? Smooth your eyebrows for a bit, it’ll come to you.
If you need me, I’ll be here watching this movie over and over and over again.