This is Jules. I host a couple of weekly events and help run NeuroQueer. Mainly, I meet my friends in an accepting space where I don’t have to hide any part of me that I do not want to hide. I host meetings that support my own needs (a time to write and a time to face the financial music that I may have been ignoring) and welcome others to do what they need to do.
In true ADHD fashion, I have had many careers: baker, business owner, carpenter, flight instructor, commercial pilot, linguist, cognitive scientist, human factors professional… and am still (re)inventing myself*.
Three years ago, at 62, a year or so after coming out non-binary, during what I now recognize as neurodivergent burnout, I sought psychological evaluation and received a diagnosis of ADHD/gifted. Meanwhile, work got worse, I got fired and I embarked on yet another bifurcation in my self-discovery journey.
In the process of embracing my new-found identity (and diving into my new special interest!), I recognized how I had always forced myself to fit into a neurotypical world. Like many of us, my personal history was rewritten overnight. I soon self-diagnosed as AuDHD and have remained blissfully tortured by that awkward balance ever since.
NeuroQueer has been instrumental in my quest for self-acceptance and a meaningful life. Being welcomed into this non-judgmental, creative space with super bright, self-aware folks, I am educated, inspired and expanding every day.
After a fruitless and frustrating 2½-year online job search, I am now dedicating my energy to endeavors that feed all of me. Carpentry is paying the bills, stimulating my problem-solving brain and keeping me in the world. My professional pilot and grad school geek selves are manifesting in some FAA funded research. A desire to pass on hard won life experience and support the queer neurodivergent community is feeding the slow creation of a book. And my curiosity-driven social animal is working on a podcast with some amazing NeuroQueer friends.
I host NQ events to be there for us. To show up and witness myself and others.
* The ‘tism demands that I list some of the non-career jobs I had along the way, including newspaper subscription sales, retail sales/stocker, ice cream truck driver, waiter, ice cream server, city tax initiative hotline, law clerk, telemarketing… and I know I am forgetting something.
