So two weeks ago was the anniversary of my autism diagnosis. As being diagnosed autistic late was such a positive thing for me, I decided to celebrate as if it was my birthday. I was aware of the other autistic people acknowledging their autiversary on the anniversary of their diagnosis. I love this idea, so I did the same! If the Queen of England can have two birthdays every year, why can’t I? I consider my autiversary as my second birthday, and in this brief post, I’m going to share how I celebrated my first autiversary!
As I was on the verge of completing my master’s degree for my autiversary this year, so it was very low-key as I had spent most of the day working. However, I planned simply to have a birthday cake in the evening to acknowledge my autiversary. Turns out that not many places are sold autiversary cakes (Actually I couldn’t find any), so I had to pay extra to get a personalised cake to mark the occasion. Although it was more than I would’ve liked to have spent, at least it was a high-quality cake that tasted delicious.
However, I was surprised that my parents got me a card and a small box of stim toys when I came downstairs in the morning. It was so sweet and unexpected, that’s they got me a small gift as if it was my real birthday. Turns out my parents also could not find an autiversary card (not surprising really), but they did find a very appropriate cat card (if you didn’t already know, cats are one of my main interests). I was really touched by this because I just imagined my autiversary would be a little bit prosecco and cake! I spent most of the day playing with my new stim toys while finishing off my dissertation.
I’m hoping next year that I can celebrate my autiversary all day, and that coronavirus will be over so I have more options of fun things I can do on my second autiversary. I hope you enjoyed the post and please post your thoughts in the comments section below.
If you enjoy my writing or would like to support my online advocacy work, I would be forever grateful if you could buy me a coffee (or tea in my case).
Sarah Boon 