Relationships & Dating
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The Importance of Supporting Foster Families
I have been interested in the foster care system for years. Right after graduating college, I visited my best friend in California, who was completing an internship. Her host family had fostered children, and I was speechless listening to their stories. I was stunned by how utterly this family had been dedicated to trying to…
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Redefining Thanksgiving: Embracing New Traditions
Food and celebration are often inextricably linked. My family typically begins cooking/ baking extravaganza on Thanksgiving. My family frequently hosted Thanksgiving because my parents had enough room and a centrally located home. Almost every year, mounds of mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, turkey, sweet potato casserole, sausage stuffing, and pies would be assembled on the…
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Mindfulness for the Holidays
I’ve heard a saying I agree with, “ Expectations are resentments waiting to happen.” I have often gone into family gatherings, milestones, social gatherings, etc., with specific expectations of what I want to get out of said event. These could revolve around how I expected someone to respond, the emotions I wanted to feel, or…
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Songs to Get You Through the Holidays
We all know how fun it is to face the inquisition from nosy/ well meaning relatives. Whether they are asking about our dating life, work life, or something else we’d rather not discuss, here are some songs that you can burst forth with to throw them off their rhythm so the interrogation stops Are you…
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We too are Fiddlers
In the opening song from Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye discusses how his world is organized by tradition in the village and at a micro level. The song explains the role everyone plays, and the song ends with Tevye saying that they are all like a fiddler on the roof, trying to balance the challenges…
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Navigating Dating with Autism: Challenges and Insights
I was asked recently how having autism had affected my ability to date and find romantic partners. If you had asked me when I was recently diagnosed I would have told you that autism was going to be a defining challenge in my ability to find love and sustain a long-term relationship. I went through…
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Building a life worth living
I’ve been on a new adventure since the breakup that occurred almost two months ago. The first part has been grieving the life I used to have when I was in that relationship. For about a month everything felt like it was going well. After two years of applying to different jobs, I finally had…
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To Plan A Party
Am I the only one who likes to host parties? It would seem to be incongruent with who I am and how I move through the world, but don’t be mistaken, I like to throw a nice party. Don’t get me wrong, once the guest count rises over five or six, I’m overstimulated, but intimate…
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Happy New Year!
I’ve been confronting a lot of uncomfortable emotions lately. I classify painful or unpleasant emotions as sadness, anger, disappointment, or anything else that accompanies a sad or disheartening experience. When I stopped relying on food to dull my feelings, I realized how much I’d been burying. Now that I feel these emotions, I’m trying different…
Living on the Spectrum 