Life is a rollercoaster

For Christmas I got little dude a ‘would you rather’ book. One of the questions was:

Would you rather live in virtual reality (a fake world) that is perfect OR live in the real world that has ups and downs.

All the adults nonchalantly answered the second answer, we would choose the real world, even with its ups and downs. We then tried, unsuccessfully, to explain our answer to a nine-year-old who didn’t get why we wouldn’t want the perfect fake world.

In an instant we all knew that without the lows in life you would not appreciate the highs. Without the struggles you wouldn’t celebrate the successes. Life is lived in the ups and downs.

For an autistic person that is even more the case. My life is a life of extremes. I feel intensely, I experience life intensely. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I wake up every morning and have a profound appreciation for where my life is, because I worked so bloody hard, and went through hell to get here. I appreciate every single one of my supporters because I know what being isolated and alone feels like.

The brilliance of life is you don’t know what will happen next. And that is coming from an autistic person who likes to plan everything. But life doesn’t let you plan, not really, not in the long term. It will twist and turn where it wants. Call it destiny, call it complete chance. But it will take you where it wants and often there isn’t much we can do. Yes, we can guide it where possible, but life will always find a way to throw curve balls at us.

In 2010 I experienced the extreme highs and lows of life. Jenson, my little brother, was born months after horrific tragedy hit our family. In a 5-month period I experienced the absolute peaks and dips life has to offer.

Since 2010 it has been nothing short of a rollercoaster ride. I sit writing this incredibly happy and content in my life. I am not naïve enough to think that this will last forever, because that is not how life works. The recent redundancies at work are proof that you could lose everything in a second.

The beauty of life being a rollercoaster?
Appreciate the highs, they won’t last forever.
Survive the lows, knowing that they also will not last forever.

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