Dream house leads to crushing reality
I recently toured a family friend's new house, and instantly fell in love. It is a large house, but not starter-castle size. It is pretty minimalist, and there is no space in the home that is wasted- it doesn't even have any hallways, that's how well the space is filled. It's absolutely beautiful, and brilliantly designed. During that tour, it became my ideal dream house. Once they finish it, I'll hopefully be able to snap a few pictures and post them.
Anywho, I was describing the house's layout to a friend and her brother who was walking by and stopped to listen in. He listened to me describe this house in enthusiastic detail for several minutes before saying:
"Wow. Listening to you describe this house. You have a really good memory, but you can't remember faces. I mean, I knew that before, but you have a really good memory. Just not for faces… That sucks. A lot."
Her brother and I have gotten to know each other since he has been staying with her. He is fully aware of my face blindness. Yet, it didn't actually occur to him what, exactly, it means. Apparently, even people who know me pretty well seem to think that I'm a ditzy airhead. I've run across this assumption before, but until today, I haven't been able to convince anyone that I'm anything other than what they assume me to be. All they see is my disorder, which is interesting since it is invisible, causing them to attribute my behaviour and seemingly poor memory to a lack of intelligence. It's like I have to work twice or thrice as hard to convince people that I'm actually pretty smart. I value my intelligence, and it really hurts when no matter how much I demonstrate otherwise, they still see me as intellectually inferior. His spontaneous realisation really made it sink in just how much this disorder affects my life and my relationships, and influences other people's opinion of me. To be honest, I was almost happier not knowing. FML.
