artRad

turns out i’m just the youngest person in the class by about 30 years so the deduction wasn’t that hard

anyways, apparently people keep taking the welding class over and over again and the wait list is like 100 people long and so it was by some act of providence of pure dumb luck that I managed to get a spot. This also means I was the only person there who hadn’t welded before.

I’m stationed at a big center table where the teacher can keep an eye on me, and everyone else is in booths on the surrounding walls each making their own projects. And these are impressive looking projects. One guy is making a side table, a woman is making a giant metal rocking chair, and another guy was making a wind chime out of old compressed air canisters. 

The elderly gentlemen in the booth right behind me introduces himself to me as Jim and asks me if this is my first time and I say yeah and he smiles at me and tells me I’m gonna love it and how this class is so fun.

Immediately Jim becomes my new best friend. He comes over whenever I stop to take a break and asks how I’m doing and even helps me take the welding mask off when I couldn’t figure out how to do it myself. 

at one point i see Jim and another old guy talking to the teacher and i catch the old guy pointing at me. now being pointed at is usually never a good thing. the teacher has had me welding edges of scrap metal together so I can get a feel for the equipment. The teacher comes to check on me and I jokingly as him if those seasoned guys were making fun of me. 

Turns out I’m super good at welding and the old guy didn’t believe it was my first time welding ever and Jim was trying to convince him I was a newbie. :D

So for the entire 3 hour long class, like 15 middle aged and elderly people would periodically come by my table and check in with me, making sure I’m having fun and asking me questions about my life, and things like, do you know where the drinking fountain is, making sure I’m taking breaks, looking out for me and that kind of thing, all while being completely kind and supporting and complimenting me on my welding skills. 

the other elderly gentleman’s name is Gino and spoke with a thick Italian accent and took to calling me Bella for the rest of the semester. Jim made sure to always take the booth closest to me. 

Another guy in the class named Mike did salvage diving as a hobby and always showed me pictures of the cool stuff he’d found. He also made very cool sculptures out of spoons, forks and knives. I at one point made an offhand joke that I was moving soon, and was jealous that Mike had all this cutlery to spare to make sculptures out of. (I was going to be moving in with my boyfriend and neither of us really had a lot of kitchenware) The next class he brought in an entire cutlery set insisting that he was trying to clean out his house because he had so many and wouldn’t take no for an answer. We still have them to this day :)

They had cupcakes waiting for me on my birthday and on the last day they had framed picture of me with my final project because “it’s important to celebrate your successes” and encouraged me to give it to my mom (which of course I did, along with my cattail sculpture)

Come, wayward souls And wander through the darkness There is a light, for the lost and the meek Sorrow and fear are easily forgotten When you submit to the soil of the earth

Grow, tiny seed You are called to the trees Rise till your leaves fill the sky Until your sighs fill the air in the night Lift your mighty limbs And give praise to the fire

and lots of people think this very likely,

“Oh little Sionnat has obviously been taken by the fairies and they’ve left us a Changeling Child who knows too much, and asks strange questions, and uses words she shouldn’t know, and watches everything with her big dark eyes, clearly a Fairy Child and not a Human Like Us.”

The Myth of the Changeling child, a human baby apparently replaced at a young age by a toddler who “suddenly” acts “strange and fey” is an almost textbook depiction of autistic children.

To this day, “autism warrior mommies” talk about autism “stealing” their “sweet normal child” and have this idea of “getting their real baby back” which (in the face of modern science)  indicates how the human psyche actually does deal with finding out their kid acts unlike what they expected.

But here’s the thing: life is louder, brighter and more intense and confusing than it has ever been. I live on the edge of London and I rarely go into the centre of town because it’s too overwhelming. If I went back in time and lived on a farm somewhere, would anyone even notice there was anything odd about me? No police sirens, no crowded streets that go on for miles and miles, no flickery electric lights. Working on a farm has a clear routine. I’d be a badass at spinning cloth or churning butter because I find endless repetition soothing rather than boring.

I really needed to hear this. I had never thought of it this way. This literally never occurred to me, I’ve just spent my whole adult life thinking I was underqualified for everything. Thinking I’m not good enough for anything because the “minimum requirements” are so high.

The reason they couldn’t afford you is that if you meet 100% of the requirements, you’re ready for the next position up.

Career strategy 101: The most valuable employees are always learning. Every company wants employees who won’t stagnate, i.e. sit in one role doing the same thing ever year and continue getting annual raises. A company wants to hire you for one thing at one salary, and then move you up through higher positions over the years, i.e. they keep getting new benefits for the additional money they’re spending on you.

A good company will offer you development opportunities, either within your role or in addition to it. So when the company interviews you, they want to see that you can learn what they need, and you want to see that they can teach you new skills. Companies know that the best applicants are interviewing them in return and that if they don’t offer development, they will lose those applicants to better jobs.

Companies structure positions this way intentionally and they assume you know it.

at first glance it passes for mildly sexist humor (him growing up being treated like a girl) but the creators are pretty progressive so i wouldn’t be surprised if that was their way of sneaking in a trans character. 

that’s FALSE, actually! and a common but dangerous misconception, which i’ll get to in a minute.

it blows my mind that i have accidentally found myself in a discussion about dr  doofenshmirtz’s theoretical hrt status, but he canonically cannot grow facial hair & has an unusually high voice, so it doesn’t sound like he’s been through testosterone based puberty. not all trans people choose or are able to go on hormones, and plenty of people discontinue or take a break from hormone therapy (for person, medical, financial reasons etc).   

also he does have a daughter in the show. idk if it’s confirmed that she’s his biological child but plenty of trans people have kids, before or after transitioning. 

an important fact to know about trans health is that afab people who are on testosterone or have been in the past can still get pregnant. (some trans parents pause hrt in order to do so.) though in most cases testosterone lowers fertility, these changes are not necessarily permanent and hormone therapy is not a form of birth control (the last is true for both testosterone and estrogen therapy). If you’re having the type of sex that can result in pregnancy, talk to your doctor to make sure you’re using the right precautions. and whatever your assigned sex at birth, if you think you may want kids in the future be sure to talk to your doctor about fertility issues before starting hormone therapy. you shouldn’t have to choose between your transition and your ability to have children, if you want them. 

again, i cannot believe i’m having this conversation in regards to a kid’s cartoon character, but trans healthcare education is piss poor in my country, so we take opportunities where we find them

im shaking so hard

and crying

i hadn’t seen the trailer until tonight like

i’d heard so much naysaying from tumblr users who just

dont understand

how good

how progressive

how fucking progressive everything about this fucking movie is

it needs to be received

now.

Theres a movie about being transgender

About being a transgender man

About family

About the struggles that come with it

This is so important

This is amazing

And its on all of these platforms!!!

Send me an emoji + a character of mine!

Style:

… 👔 in formal attire! … 📌 in their work clothes! … 💍 in a wedding dress! … 💋 in sexy attire! … ⛄ in winter clothes! … ☀ in summer clothes! … 😴 in their pajamas! … 👗 dressed for the club! … 👤 in goth attire! … 😎 in punk attire! … 🥇 dressed for their favorite sport! … 🐶 in a kigurumi! … 🎤 as a pop star! … 📝 as a student! … 💪 as a Greaser/Soc! … 🐴 in a horse mask! … 🕍 in Victorian attire! … 🛀 in nothing but a towel! … ✌ as a 1960s hippie! … ☝ in 1990s grunge attire! … 😬 in something they would never wear!

Magical:

… 🐟 as a mermaid! … 🦇 as a vampire! … 🐺 as a werewolf! … 🐲 as a dragon! … 😇 as an angel! … 😈 as a demon! … 🌼 as a fairy! … 🖤 as a witch! … 🦉 with their familiar! … ⚔ with their weapon of choice! … 👻 as a ghost! … 🌠 as a cosmic being!

Fiction:

… 🍥 in a cosplay! … 👑 as royalty! … 🏹 as a JRPG class! … 🎲 as a D&D class! … 👓 as a superhero/supervillain! … 😺 as an animal! … 👽 as a species from another show/movie/etc! … 🤖 as a robot! … 🐯 as a furry!

Headcanons:

… 👶 as a child! … 👪 with their family! … 👯 with their best friend! … 👎 with their enemy! … 🐹 with their pet(s)! … 🗺 in an outfit of their cultural heritage! … 💐 surrounded by their favorite flowers! … 👴 as an elderly person! … 🎶 to a song that I associate with them!

Special:

i did a meme

site for when you can only remember part of a word/its definition 

site that gives you words that rhyme with a word