“Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.” – Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
When first starting this blog, I intended to do a daily quote of the day post. I never did. In fact, my “Quotes” category has only four posts. I do like quotes though, so when I figured I had nothing else to share, I decided to do a quote post again.
Today I checked out a sort of guided self-discovery journal called Happy to Meet Me. This quote was printed above the first prompt. The prompt was about common misconceptions about you. It asks you what you wish people would automatically see about you.
This is harder than I thought. After all, the prompt isn’t what you wish people didn’t immediately know about you. I mean, that would be easy. I wish people would see beyond my blindness. But then what would they see?
I think most people would see me as still somehow disabled if they didn’t see I’m blind. Like my sister said when I was a teen, I don’t appear like someone my age judging from even my way of walking. Of course, I have mild cerebral palsy, but the average Joe won’t have a clue. They’ll most likely think I’m intellectually disabled. Until I start to talk. Then most people will be baffled and start to assume my every way of being different is due to blindness again. After all, most people here are still pretty clueless about autism.
I don’t really know what I wish people would automatically know about me. I mean, back when I was still more serious about blogging, I knew that people had their blog name printed on T-shirts and I even for a fleeting moment considered getting one myself. I’m glad I never did, as honestly in the age of smartphones I don’t think I’d want people in the streets to be able to Google me without ever having met me. I mean, my blog is way too personal for that.
I can think of things I wish professionals would automatically know about me. I wish they understood the disconnect between my intellectual and emotional functioning. I can also think of things I wish friends would automatically know. I wish they’d know about my interests. But what would I want other people in general to know? I guess I’d start with the very basic: I am a human being just like you.
What do you wish people would automatically see about you?
A Multitude of Musings 
I wish friends would simply not assume I am them. This is really important to me, so I raised my children to be extra sensitive to the fact that other people have different ideas and feelings about… pretty much everything! Or they might.
But my friends so often ASSUME how I feel (and each other). They think that everyone will find something funny if they do. That’s a big thing. I get really frustrated on this topic…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh I’m so sorry your friends are like this. It’s so hard when people assume you must like the same things they do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t even give my link to locals or family, I can’t imagine putting it on a t-shirt to wear in public. I mean, if these people understood me and had any empathy, they would be kind to me like people on line are.
I am surrounded by family and friends who deem my mental health disability not legitimate and they expect me to have their same mentality, like what they like, do what they do…And I’m sorry, I love them, but I am not like them because my brain is not like theirs, it misfires. Furthermore, I don’t want to be a narcissistic redneck homophobe who judges everyone.
*Some people* right off get my dark, sarcastic humor and they are similar so we have fun bantering without any hurt feelings. When they get to know me, they come to understand that dark sarcasm was the coping mechanism I developed as a bullied teen to survive the daily onslaught of being called names and spit on and having my pants shucked to my ankles. It remains how I get through all the criticism and lack of support to this day.
I wish people would look beyond the black clothing, the Halloween decor year round, and the sarcasm and see me as the person I am. I am dark, but I am also light in the way I collect big eyeballed stuffed animals and love all my cats. People tend not to hang around long enough to scratch under that surface.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Oh yeah, I understand. I can be really sarcastic at times too and seem like I have a negative attitude as well, but I don’t. Like you say, my brain works differently.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a tough one but you gave a good answer and so did the others who already commented.
LikeLiked by 1 person