Sharing My Umbrella

You know that feeling of being caught in an unexpected torrential rainstorm? You’re starting to get drenched, you’re shivering, and everything just feels miserable and hopeless and confusing. Plus the rain is in your eyes, so you can’t even see where you’re going. But then someone comes along and shares their umbrella with you. You’re still wet and cold, but now you’re not alone. You’re no longer being actively rained on, and with the rain out of your eyes you start feeling more hopeful because you can see your path again.

For a lot of my life, I’ve felt out of place and like I never got it quite “right.” I felt like I had always said or done something wrong, was a little too open, or laughed a little too loudly. I felt like I was constantly out in that confusing and daunting rainstorm. I think we’ve ALL felt that to some extent. Heck, even as an adult I often felt like I was “in trouble” for saying or doing the wrong thing, and I almost never understood why.

And then I found someone who GOT me. Who never thought I was too loud or obnoxious and who never minded that I over-shared. Someone who liked my quirks and found my annoying habits endearing (bless him). I’d found my best friend; someone who shared their umbrella with me so we were at least together in this storm. We could talk about anything and I never felt like I’d said or done the wrong thing. He even stuck around for 7 years of “friendzoning” until I finally figured out he was my soulmate and married him. But that’s a story for another time.

Years passed where we both discussed our feelings of never fitting in and being grateful for the other loving and accepting us for who we are. Until one day an epic meltdown lead to my husband being diagnosed with autism (which is also a whole other story). And suddenly so much made sense. When our oldest daughter started having her own epic meltdowns, almost as if she were two different people, our minds were already open to neurodivergence. She was diagnosed with ADHD, which inadvertently led to MY ADHD diagnosis at the same time. And now everything made complete sense. We were finally able to clear the rain out of our eyes and we could see.

I started sharing our story genuinely and authentically on social media when one particular video randomly blew up. 

With over 18 MILLION views and hundreds of DMs, friend requests, and (once I figured out how to turn on the "follower” feature on Facebook) 85K+ followers, I realized that SO MANY PEOPLE feel exactly the same way.

The video that went viral? That real love – and life – looks so different than I expected. That love doesn’t need to fit in a box. That different is most definitely NOT bad, in fact it’s awesome! And that creating a fulfilling life is possible for us weridos. 😉 And it’s more amazing than I could’ve ever imagined. Basically it was just me sharing my umbrella.

So now I’ll be here, continuing to share my umbrella with you. We’ll be diving deeper into all kinds of topics here – relationships, intimacy, parenting, pain…all through a neurodivergent lens. Because we’re all living life in real-time, and it’s nice to have a quirky, over-sharing friend who’s going through it all with you. Because you deserve to feel like you belong. And because I want YOU to live an amazingly fulfilling life, too.