Growing up I was always an avid reader; I would spend hours ignoring social responsibilities, diving into the extensive fantasy worlds of Harry Potter and The Tale of Despereaux. On my eighth birthday, I was gifted a book that changed my life. It was a sea-green colored book with Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief written in gold on the illustrated cover. At that time, I was often targeted because of my strange behavior and bright blonde hair by peers at school. When I first read Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, I met someone incredible: Annabeth Chase, the daughter of Athena, known for her wisdom and striking blonde hair. I grew up with Disney princesses as female representation, but Annabeth was different. She was not afraid to get her hands dirty and would always save the day with some with some genius plan. Annabeth became my role model, and I became empowered by the fact that I saw myself in her. Several years later in the 6th grade, the bullying amped up, and I would often lash out, trying to defend myself. But that wasn’t allowed at my private school. I spent much of that year in and out of the disciplinary office alone. Eventually my time in the disciplinary office would land me into meeting the school psychologist. After what seemed like 100 tests that I could barely concentrate on and endless droning, I was diagnosed with ADHD. I was utterly confused and broken, I felt inferior. But I remembered something, the Percy Jackson series. I reread the books and found that Annabeth and all demigod heroes had ADHD just like me. They too had the same struggles but instead, their ADHD proved essential to their heroic feats. ADHD allowed demigods to have heightened senses when battling mythical monsters and I believed that I could do the same. The fact that I was able to see myself in a book character completely changed how I see myself. I went from an insecure, baffled preteen at the beginning of my diagnosis to a still insecure preteen who was able to see the positives in having ADHD. Growing up with Annabeth Chase has made me adopt her confidence and poise. Of course, I’m not a demigod nor can I really fight monsters, but I fight my own monsters every day, whether that be schoolwork or socializing. Annabeth Chase’s bravery allowed me to become vocal about my conditions and seek help for myself. I used to be petrified of asking for help, but Annabeth was most successful when she partnered with her demigod friends to take down challenges. She allowed me to see that my ADHD was not a burden, nor was I for having it. She helped me realize that I was not alone in my struggles, and nor do I have to fight them alone. Annabeth Chase is the reason I now have the bravery to question myself and the world around me. She is why I had the confidence to seek out an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis without any help. From her, I now know that my disabilities don’t disable me, they are a part of me that I should not be ashamed of, and I am not afraid to use them to fight my monsters. 

My spring passion blog will be focused on highlighting one animal per post and why their conservation is important.

My civic issue blog will be about how the education system consistently fails to support neurodivergent students.

“This I Believe” Ideas:

1. The American education system is unfair to neurodivergent students. This piece will reflect my own experiences with ableism throughout my school experiences, from ages 3 to now, pointing out how our school system continually fails to provide any substantial support to students, whose childhoods are already delicate times, with mental disabilities. Societal perceptions of neurodivergencies and the influence of gender will also be examined.
2. Organizations that aim to “cure” autism are incredibly harmful to the autistic community. These organizations, such as the infamous Autism Speaks, are headed by neurotypical people and are supported by overbearing “autism parents” who see false hope in these scams. The attitudes that these prominent organizations display and spread to neurotypical “allies” ostracize the autistic community and promote the idea that most autistic people are unable to function in a neurotypical society. Due to this belief, the opinions of actually autistic people are shunned and silenced, and these organizations often have the major say in the societal perceptions of autism. I will reflect on my own experiences being autistic and how I, like most autistics, aren’t at all what these organizations claim and eventually stereotype.

Passion Blog Ideas:

1. “Animal of the Week.” As an Ecology major who wants to go into wildlife conservation, and as that little autistic girl who’s always been fixated on animals, I would love to highlight an interesting animal species in my passion blog. I currently plan on writing pieces about little-known species and why it’s important to conserve such species, as well as how these species are being impacted by human activities.
2. “Growing Up Special.” This blog will detail several moments in my life where my neurodivergencies impacted me the most, both the good and bad parts. It will serve to combat stereotypes about neurodivergent people and how these stereotypes inhibited my self-growth, but allowed for me a sense of freedom when I broke them.

Civic Issue Blog Ideas:

1. Why does the American public education system fail to support mentally disabled students? This blog will consider statistical data of disabled student success and contrast public K-12 schools with specialized K-12 schools for neurodivergent students in order to dig into what our public education system is getting wrong about disabled pupils. Public school bullying policies will also be examined to determine how the social environment of many public schools puts disabled students at risk. Suggestions for improving the school environment will also be discussed, and my own ideas and experiences will also be implemented to further the discussion.
2. Are major corporations influencing climate change policy? Corporations often have a much larger say in American politics than most would like to admit, and considering they’re mainly to blame for the current climate crisis, how far back does this corporate-government partnership go and why exactly are they so environmentally unregulated.