Frequently Shy
Disclaimer: (New on the 2e subreddit, but lived with a 2e diagnosis my entire life...and as of recently, I decided it's time to put myself out there, so, here's a little about my Life story)
By 7¾ months old, I spoke my first word(s); "Dog...dog...dog", while I watched our Dog run outside.
By age 1, I could speak in full sentences, however, it was discovered that I had a major developmental learning disability, a visual cortex processing disorder. Along with, zero presence of fine motor skills, and zero presence of depth perception, whatsoever. In other words, a severe case of completely separate ocular nerves -- known as a strabismus.
Additionally, once I turned 1 as well, I strongly disliked going to sleep, and I would stay awake all night...speaking aloud to myself, and playing with my eyes.
When I did fall asleep, I had a potent streak of intense sleepwalking that routinely happened for a long time, so even if I'd fall asleep, it wasn't traditional sleep. (Sleepwalking stopped around age 6).
I had to wear glasses, with specific lenses. For the Left eye, a triple prism lens, and for the right, the eye that all of my focus naturally stays in, the lens was not as intense.
Shortly after my visual conundrum was discovered, my family moved to a different country, outside of the United States.
Where I was living at that time, I was massively exposed to an environment that contained, predominantly, the French, German, Deutsch, and English languages.
As well as, a seemingly infinite well of different accents, tonalities, and phonetics...that I was constantly around, all the time, and so, by age 3, I could comprehend, and understand what people were saying, meaning, etcetera, pretty much instantaneously, regardless if it was someone who did not speak English -- my first language.
So much so, that, someone speaking to me in German, for instance, I could comprehensively understand them, and they'd understand me as well, even if I was just speaking English. Although, I did know and grasped basic conversation in each of the languages I was exposed to. German and English, i'd say, were the easiest. (I did not continue practicing these languages, when I moved back to the U.S.)
During pre-school, still while in another country, my family was presented a cautionary suggestion from one of my teachers, about how I convinced another teacher in our classroom, without really knowing I did, that, my visual developmental learning disability was not as bad as it was.
My goal was to draw little, to no unwanted attention to myself. So, no one would be focused on reminding me about how I wasn't able to cut out a simple circle, hold a pencil properly, so on and so forth.
Thankfully, one of those teachers, wisely, and correctly, told my family to keep a close watch, due to the likelihood, I would attempt to downplay my vision issues, as I got older, throughout the rest of my childhood development, because I did not like being singled out.
Brilliant decision by that teacher.
Eventually, not long after I turned 5, we moved back to the United States, and that was right before my Life's trajectory totally altered. For a plethora of reasons.
As a result, at age 7, without a choice in the matter, I began traveling as an unaccompanied minor. A solo passenger on airplanes.
My separated families could only afford to fly me unaccompanied, and likewise, that's why I had to experience a lot of connecting flights, a massive amount of delays, layovers, arrivals, departures, terminals, thousands of people everywhere, and I also have had to stay over night on many occasions in airports.
Most of the 11 years I spent flying, from ages 7-18...was within the U.S.
However, from ages 10-12, I had to fly to a different country, still as an unaccompanied minor. So, the itinerary changed during that period.
For the majority of my childhood though, One family was slightly over 2k miles away from my other family, so, for perspective, I'll provide the average number of individual planes I rode in each year, just for the metrics of flying back and forth in the U.S.
Each year, I had to fly 3 different times. For Summer, alternating Xmas/Thanksgiving, and spring break. It was 4 flights to where I was going, and 4 flights back.
A few times, I did not have to fly for spring break...so that would've been just 16 individual planes the few times I didn't fly for spring break. Otherwise, it'd be 24 individual planes that I had to ride in, unaccompanied, each year.
I pretty much was raised in the skies, in terminals, whilst being pinballed, back and forth between separate families.
It was not easy, but, I made the most of it, I absolutely could have.
All in all, what I taught myself during that period of my life, became my saving grace, that bridged the gaps between my extreme asymmetrical development, profound level of cognitive ability, with the emotional department of my Life not trailing too far behind, since I had no choice, but to be exposed, which, personally, gave me a close, and magnified look at what emotional intelligence meant for my Life.
In 8th grade, when I was 14, I was told a miracle happened. My Doctor, he told me, I no longer needed glasses, didn't need contacts, or laser treatment/surgeries.
When people meet me, unless I explain my story, and deliberately show them what my eyes do, if I cross them, nobody ever questions, or notices I live with this, at all. My eyes to this day, both see 20/20. And, I am grateful for that.
Interestingly also, which surprised me the first time I found this out, is the fact that, the most dominantly expressed metrics, in my own cognitive profile are VSI, and MPI. It surprised me because, for a long time, I was constantly told how eloquently I use speech, so, I figured that would've been at the top.
When I took the stanford-binet test at 7 years old, the psychologist who proctored my testing, told my parent, that, every time I was asked to recreate the same shape I saw on the paper in front of me, I visually reversed it, over and over again. They stamped me with, "Perfect Visual Reversal".
Although for me, it's as if, it's just in my mind already, but, it's activated by my ears, and not my eyes, if that makes any sense? If not, I apologize. Sort of strange to describe.
I suppose, subjectively, in my personal case, its sort of a combination of a very fast metabolic recovery rate, in tandem with a large amount of neuroplasticity and a peculiar way in which my brain, when I was very young, went through a massive compensatory modal realignment process, by which, it rerouted, and mapped all of the correct ocular inputs, and outputs...in such a backwards, 180° way, yet, somehow, simultaneously corrected itself, as much as it could, to a point where others wouldn't even know I had an intensive, IEP until I got to 8th grade.
Anyway, this is a portion of my life story, that I felt was important for me to share, and put out there. (And, I'm sorry to the moderators if I got something wrong, that I missed, I'll do better next time).
Thank you, sincerely!