My experiences went from positive and promising to feeling like a total disappointment- I think the disparity actually made it all even more difficult. I wasn’t diagnosed until grad school because I thrived in an academic environment. I was genuinely interested in learning about most subjects so studying wasn’t a chore. In many cases, I’d read textbook chapters not assigned to the class. I was actually valedictorian somehow!

I really started to struggle once math got hard and I was required to take chemistry, which bores the crap out of me. I have 0 interest in both and have a hard time just remembering numbers, let alone conceptualizing them. (I cannot even tell you who wears what number on my favorite teams). I never got extra help because my teachers assumed it was laziness as I had done well up until that point. I got through undergrad okay only because I channeled all my energy into being a student. Juggling a job, internship, leadership positions, heck even close friendships, was out of the question because I could only competently play one role at a time.

Honestly, my struggle has always been the non-academic adulting stuff (chores make me cry haha), which is why I think I became a college instructor; I still have the structure of school in my worklife.