I got to meet Dr. Temple Grandin! #aspiesqueal

It feels good to hang and be around people (or aliens) who are like me. It felt like a dream attending Dr. Temple Grandin's interview at Live LA Talks with my Asperger Group members @sachsketches
and Sage. Dr. Mary from TRUST Autism Research at USC, which I've been a part of the last year, came and joined us as well.

Coincidentally all of us Aspies wore black! (Surprise, surprise). Sage and I wore the exact same style of dress. (Practicality comes first). Most of us met for the first time or after several years. We barely communicated due to autistic burnout and being constantly over-sensorized.

Some of us were early so we got to take a photo with Dr. Temple herself by sheer luck!! No eye contact and small talk required. Info dumping allowed and not labeled as lecturing.

It was amazing to see and watch one of our own autistic species on stage freely speaking bluntly, weird and awkward (for neurotypical standards but for us it's normal) and interrupting constantly by neurotypical standards. No shaming. How refreshing. I deserve to live like this too everyday.

My only feedback for improvement is how they should have turned off the background music in order to make it an autistic friendly event. Sage and I quickly wore our earplugs upon entering. I shared with Sage my furry bag and furry jacket sensory hack and she loved it. We were all huge note takers, bringing our own notebooks.

As Dr. Temple repeated like a broken record - we need ALL kinds of brains - visual, pattern and verbal. So please save us from autistic burnout and let us be ourselves. We have a lot of great talents and skills to contribute if we can just skip social events, small talk and eye contact. We are not trying to be rude. It's just how we are. It's exhausting to constantly have to communicate and live in neurotypical ways and lifestyles, or otherwise succumb to the wrath of being misunderstood (the deadly torture we autistics deal with on a daily basis for living and breathing) and shamed. Our emotional needs constantly goes unmet, our talents ignored and our genuineness being taken advantaged of. Let's do a 180 okey.

Thanks Dr. Temple! You're our hero.