Isabelle and David continue to reflect upon what it was like to experience the Eye to Eye Young Leader's Organizing Institute Conference—Isabelle describes how strange and surreal it felt to not be judged for things she’s used to having to manage and mask about; what it means to recognize that there is a part of you that goes unseen so much of the time and when you connect with it, the grief that comes. The power of recognizing you are among your particular tribe and the jarring feeling of realizing how rare it is. And also, ADHD podcaster dance offs.  

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Isabelle describes how, partly due to flight delay and the tail end of a cold and such, it was only a day and a half worth of conference experience, and yet it felt very surreal—she kept asking, is this real? And on the second day, was walking around feeling like she was shaming herself for her own behavior (because normally, she would’ve registered people’s looks or reactions to her interrupting them so much, for example). And she also noticed that while she would normally push herself to engage even if she wanted to really shut down, here she felt safe taking time for herself and not engaging, and didn’t even feel the need to try to endear herself or manage relationships excessively to prevent fallout or misunderstandings. She felt very seen and understood. David names that no one in the world is used to not being judged. She wonders if this is a common experience for attendees? David describes that he hasn’t been in this alumni role before; when he was a participant, people would be up all night in the common rooms where they would be staying, someone would be crying, someone would be forming a significant partnership or breaking up with someone, and they would go to bed at 3a and wake up at 7a to do the whole thing over again. It was like being whisked down a torrent of a river without hitting any rocks along the way. To feel so fully accepted, in all your parts, not just the parts that are shiny but all the parts—the closest word to what it feels like is maybe a collective grief, and regret, and then also release. David names that people don’t see all your parts, but they see the parts you spend most of your time hiding.  Having that part show up—it’s exhausting and refreshing and exhilarating to know how long that part has been hidden. As a therapist, when David diagnoses someone as neurodivergent later in life—there’s an initial, “oh my god, that makes so much sense!” And it’s followed by a “oh my god, if I had known earlier…?”  You cannot grab this information without grabbing some of the grief. But it’s also so strange when you’re sitting in a room where the task is to acknowledge it. Isabelle gives the example of, going to a comicon and finding your people v. Going and finding a room full of people who are celebrating a show that was cancelled early (Firefly) and cosplaying as one specific character (Jayne) and it’s that specific and for four days straight. Or it’s like someone is playing the sports ball team and they’re wearing the opposing team’s jersey on someone, it’s like you know you’re on the same side because you’re both wearing the other team’s color. It’s the difference between finding your people under duress or outnumbered. It’s like Isabelle finding a bunch of tall women at the Denver airport and feeling oddly among her people but it’s jarring and delightful too. Isabelle wonders what David’s realization was like—he mentioned all these aspects of grieving his brother’s loss and the loss of being a part of this community in the same way, and here he came back and experienced it again. He is doing great, and he has the feeling of “put me in, coach!” He watched amazing people (like Sawyer, Chloe, for example) and seeing parts of him 10 years ago, looking up to people he thought were really great. It was this moment of feeling like everything was coming full circle and David felt an immense amount of gratitude that he could reconnect with people who were really important to him, and his partner could see what he was doing. They were participating in the ally training group and as neurotypical person, it meant so much to David to see them getting along with everyone because it wasn’t a judgment-filled place. It reminds him how important a lack of judgment means to everyone not just neurodivergent folx. He came back with a renewed sense of worth, mission, and purpose. We are trying to do this with the podcast, we are trying to destroy a stigma. And we are far from the only ones doing it, but the best podcast out there—Isabelle imagines they just challenged all these other amazing podcasters to a dance off and David names they would argue about the song choice and just end up having an amazing hangout. 

To learn more about Eye to Eye, visit www.eyetoeyenational.org