#*ableism*

Me: (using AAC) "hi I'm checking in, my name is [x] and my birthday is [y]."

Receptionist: (to my caregiver, ignoring me completely) "is he here for labwork?"

"Screwing around is okay for a while, but it’s not for me."

- Guy-Man, here.

Okay, I wanna discuss this for a little bit because I'm an emotional little fangirl because I feel this so hard.

Like, this was my biggest issue when I was in school. I actually cared; it seemed like a lot of other people (students AND teachers*) didn't. That's part of what made school hard for me. (Well, that, and a delightful system of  ableist harassment and mistreatment at the hands of the people who were supposed to be helping me and my family, but that's a different rant for a different day.)

And it's like... The System™ is willing to cater to people with certain general and (more importantly) acceptable interests. Like, if you were into sports, then yeah, there was a huge swack of teams at my old high school, and there was tonnes of support for the programs. But if you were, say... into writing? There was pretty much nothing. Sure, in high school, there were the Cappies (finally), but up until that point in my education, there was squat. And then I got branded "shy" and a "non-participant" because I didn't go out of my way to mess around with stuff I didn't want to do. Why do something if it's not going to lead you to your ultimate goal? But in being serious, in actually being motivated toward a distinct end goal (one that didn't involve The System's™ """help"""), I was branded a freak, a weirdo, a problem. And that weighed down on me. And so like, yeah, when the opportunity to finally do what you love comes about, that's what you're going to care about, and that's what you're going to do. In my case, that involved going to university (where, for me, people actually do care -- students and faculty); in Guy-Man's case, that involved dropping out. And those are both valid choices, depending on what's going to get you to where you need to be.

Thank you. *bows*