One healthy habit I've maintained over the past year is advocating my emotional needs to people. Growing up, I always had this stigma of "I'm not important, I'm too sensitive, I need to be completely independent so people don't see me as weak". A lot of that had to do with how I was raised and my lack of community as a nervous, socially awkward ASDer in St. Louis. Thankfully, I was able to get the support I needed after moving to Denver. I felt safe, at ease, and confident in my abilities to both figure things out on my own and to ask for help when I need to.

But none of that really solidified until September of last year when my mom was diagnosed with cancer. Before then, I had it in my head that my life was supposed to be a certain way now that I actually have a community. No more pain, no more struggle, it was all gonna be sunny skies and rainbows from now on. I didn't want to accept that things would still be hard even after I started healing from my past trauma. In a way, the cancer helped me realize there will always be storms to weather and made me even more thankful for my newfound community. I can reach out to any of my family, friends, teachers, etc. for advice, comfort, or just a good laugh.

I'm not afraid of falling anymore, because I know there's a net waiting to catch me.