omg im officially a fan of your mom and i wanna be her when i grow up??? from agricultural engineering all the way to perinatal work like the leap she took there??? amazing???? thank you for explaining her job description so well bc i would have never guessed how much work goes into being an 'activist' (or maybe i just have a very different definition of it in my head)
and yeaaahhh the idea of what defines 'normal' is such a huge debate and it always comes up in my psych classes which is why a lot of our training goes into neuroinclusive terminology like we try to not call neurodiverse people 'patients' or that they're 'suffering' from a disorder bc for a lot of us our experiences might be different but that doesn't necessarily mean those experiences are wrong. maybe it's not about changing people to fit the ideals of society, maybe it's trying to change society so it can adapt to differing needs. and the autistic community here on tumblr is fantastic everyone's so supportive of one another and it really helps me learn so much! hopefully if all goes well i complete my master's by the end of this year and then i can work on a more holistic level. dealing with people is the goal but if i could eventually work with entire communities to get the right interventions to the people who need it then that would be the dream
also 'its kinda insane to think we're all just a big electric circuit' that took me out ππ pretty shocking isn't it
haha yeah she's very cool and impressive and i'm very proud of her and inspired by her! and that leaped happened based on her own experiences actually, she first started by participating in the creation of a local association for parents to help each other prepare for welcoming a child, share info, etc then she did more and more and started working on a regional and national level (and her organisation also has connections in europe - i once did an internship in rome and she asked me to contact a local association there that she had discovered after being part of a documentary they were also part of and then when my family visited me, we set up a meeting and i translated for her!) and there are many many ways to be an activist, some people are more on social medias, some organise marches, some work with professionals directly, some only work with individuals or victims, some organise research etc my mother does a bit of everything and work with all kinds of people since she serves as a link between women and health practitioners , it's super interesting (btw my mother does this all for free, and full time but a lot of people do it on the side of their jobs)
oh it's great that you actually work on the terminology! especially with neurodiverse people there are so many disrespectful or reducing words being thrown around and that have been used for decades (a lot of the times without even knowing what they mean or what they represent or what makes people what they are) and we definitely should move towards a more adaptative society rather than trying to fit everyone in one mold - i feel like that idea is gaining traction on a lot of level but it's pretty slow especially when it comes to our brains (i don't know how it is in your country but here for example dyslexic people can have some additional time for their exams or some help but the school cursus in general isn't really made to accomodate people who can't learn in the set way and they're often discouraged to pursue their studies - and that's just in regard to people who can't register letters and spelling the way most people do and we're still so behind on making sure they have access to everything...) and it's so cool that your dream is to work with communities - that's the level where you can really have an impact to make sure the solutions put in place can last and aren't just bandaids on a broken bone (and in the future you'll probably get to meet people like my mother either individuals or organisations who represent neurodiverse people to make sure their interests are respected) i'm glad blogging on this wonderful mess of a website has been helpful for you in parallel to your more theoritical studies, people on here have opened my eyes to a lot of things that i'd never heard of before honestly