their (live!) young gestate for. wait for it. eight to eighteen (??) YEARS. can have up to 10 at a time. good grief.

longest lifespan of any vertebrate, up to five hundred years

toxic flesh

has giant eyes but is usually blind because of a weird little crustacean that's evolved to live on and eat their eyes. this doesn't seem to bother them much.

lives in deep cold water and has the lowest swim speed and tail-beat frequency for its size across all fish species. just generally lives life in extreme slow motion

largest genome of any shark

eats everything including moose and polar bears

I hate to say it, but if you can hold a job with minimal accommodation from others, drive a car or take public transport independently, and handle most bADL’s and iADL’s with self-management strategies, you are not high support needs.

Talking Cats

saturniata-remade-deactivated20

ohhh i DEEPLY regret teaching my cat how to talk kawaii-kozume

Oh? Would you elaborate? saturniata

okay so one night like a week or two ago kurt was meowing at me and one of the meows sounded like he was saying “hewwo” so since then I started saying “hewwo” instead of meowing back at him (like I do with all his cat sounds, naturally) and slowly his meows evolved into something vaguely “hewwo”like with the one or two True and Powerful Hewwo’s a day

but now that you have backstory I was just standing in my kitchen making rice, everythings dead silent, and suddenly this fucking “HEWWO??” echoes through the whole apartment and it almost killed me Avatar evilauthor

I actually got in huge trouble with my fiance’s sister for that. One night, I heard Fish meowing and it kinda sounded like she was saying “hello” so I decided to encourage it. If no one was going to try to get the cat to stop screaming at 3am, I wanted to try to get her to scream words so everyone would be as disturbed about it as I was. For the better part of three years, I used treats to reward her whenever she “spoke” while not letting anyone else know I was trying to teach her stuff.

One day, my fiance’s sister goes to give Fish a treat and the cat whiffs it. Misses the treat completely and it bounces under the fridge, so she’s trying to stick her paw under to get it back.

“Oh no, Fish. You lost your snack!”

“I know I know.”

Instant chaos. It wasn’t even Fish’s best words. If she had only said it once, maybe no would have noticed, but the repetition got attention and everyone just lost it. I made the mistake of praising Fish and suddenly I have the sister turn on me. “Are you why she says ‘oh no’ all the time?” Apparently Fish rarely “meows” properly anymore and will say “Oh no” whenever she’s mildly inconvenienced and wants a human to fix it for her. Avatar kyluxlovechild

Go and think about what kinds of relationships you want. Don't think about labels like romantic or platonic or sexual, think purely about what relationships would make you happiest.

When I realized I was aromantic, I was asked things like "Would you still date? Would you have a QPR? Will you ever kiss?"

But the aromantic community didn't ask that. Instead, they focused on "What do you want in a world where anything is possible?"

And I realized I want to be alone, surrounded by friends and family I love who are close enough, I can bring them fresh baked scones when I overbake.

They asked me "What do you want?" and the question was so broad, I could weigh labels in my hand like queerplatonic partner and nonpartnering and significant other. I could look at these and shrug and say, "What I want is to not worry about questions I don't care about." I could shelve these indefinitely. Maybe even forever. And just enjoy being myself.

The aromantic community celebrates exploration. Tells people asking if they are aromantic, "This is a personal decision. Your personal decision. If this label helps you, take it. If this community helps you, stay as long as you need. You don't have to be labelled anything, aromantic or otherwise, unless it would bring you comfort. You don't have to be anything you aren't."

First, I’m not a therapist. This is not mental health advice, this is just personal observations from a life I have lived.

First, I’m going to do you the courtesy of assuming your assessment is accurate, and you cannot do those things anymore. If this is more of a feeling than a fact, consider working towards those goals now even if you think you might not reach them. But, assuming you’re correct…

I think to a certain extent, grief has to run its course. I cannot ease your pain. When you think of it, it will hurt until it hurts less. I’m sorry. I’m sorry this happened to you.

However, we start to think about the past less when we are thinking about the present and the future. You are clearly capable of deep, long term passions. I doubt that these goals are the only things in the world that can inspire this passion in you.

There is so much to learn, so much to do, and so much to care about. I don’t know enough about your interests and abilities to recommend something specific, but I do recommend you look for something new. Something you’ve never thought about before, and some things you have, and maybe old things you’ve forgotten.

Libraries are wonderful resources, and in the US (where I live, so all I can speak to), they have tons of other resources people often don’t know about. They have digital resources like ebooks, music, television, and movies. Some libraries have shared tools. Hell, some have 3D printers! There are tons of other options too, but I can’t resist plugging your local library for free or low cost exploration.

Try a bunch of things. Whatever catches your eye! You’re free to explore. Do multiple things at once. Fill your days with things to look forward to, and when you find something that can inspire these feelings of dedication and pursuit, you now have more support and more tools to help you get there. Give yourself so much to like today that you have less and less time left for yesterday.

This sounds so harsh, but please bare with me.

I procrastinated a lot growing up. I still procrastinate today, but less so. And yet, I got good grades. I could write an A+ paper that “knocked [my professor]’s socks off” in the hour before class and print it with sweat running down my face.

I was so used to hearing from teachers and family that if I just didn’t procrastinate and worked all the time, I could do anything! I had all this potential I wasn’t living up to!

And that’s true, as far as it goes, but that’s like saying if Usain Bolt just kept going he could be the fastest marathon runner in the world. Why does he stop at the end of the race??

If ANYONE could make their top speed/most productive setting the one they used all the time, anyone could do anything. But you can’t. Your top speed is not a speed you’re able to sustain.

Now, I’ve found that I do need to work on not procrastinating. Not because the product is better, even, but because it’s better for my mental health and physical health to not have a full, sweating, panicked breakdown over every task even if the task itself turns out excellently. It’s a shitty way to live! You feel bad ALL the time! And I don’t deserve to live like that anymore.

So all of this to say, I’m not wasting a ton of potential. I don’t have an ocean of productivity and accomplishments inside of me that I could easily, effortlessly access if I just sat down 8 hours a day and worked. There’s no fucking way. That’s not real. It’s an illusion. It’s fine not to live up to an illusion.

Minas Tirith Sandcastle 

A Minas

Tirith

Sand