Acceptance Is the Starting Point

What if acceptance isn't something we hand out once people have earned it?

What if it's the starting point?

So many neurodivergent people spend years translating themselves: softening how they talk, hiding the workarounds, watching faces to see whether they've been "too much." Most of us learned early that what comes naturally to us may not be welcome.

I live with ADHD, OCD and dyslexia, and I know that translating well. One of the most freeing ideas I wrote in Grounded in How I'm Wired is this: "Maybe there were different operating systems in the room."

Nobody in that room was broken. They were wired differently.

When we accept people as they are, we stop asking them to shrink before we'll listen. The people I'm most grateful for are the ones who "chose curiosity over judgment." They asked what would help before they asked why someone couldn't just do it the "normal" way.

You don't have to earn your place by becoming someone else.

Who in your life met you with curiosity instead of judgment?