[temp-word-hose]

I do not have autism or ADHD, but a significant number of people in my family do* such that the behaviours popularly believed to be associated with autistic people are the cultural norm in my family, it took me a few years, and many missteps to adjust to the wider cultural norms, and even now after decades as a functional neurotypical, there is a joy, and a sense of slipping back into speaking my mother tongue when I find myself in conversation with someone who speaks and acts with the patterns of my childhood. When for example, last week - an 11 year old was barely able to meet my gaze begins arguing a strongly articulated position on the nature of mosquito consciousness or my work colleague who cannot bare turning on his webcam, leaps straight into a discussion of the relative merits of different data structures.

*in my close family - two women - both formally diagnosed as autistic, and at least 4 men among the family elders who trained as mathematicians or engineers are assumed by other family members to be on the autism spectrum, but I am not privy to any formal medical diagnosis.