I was first called a dyke then bull dyke in elementary school. I had no idea what it meant and the boy who was calling me that was hitting my head from his seat on the bus behind me. So I grabbed his backpack and and flipped him over the seat.

All the gay slurs were the most common to use against me. Though I did get called a n- lover a few times as well.

When I was younger I fought back physically and/ or verbally. As I got older I would just question the person on why what they were calling me was a bad thing.

Though I do think my favorite come back for any of the gay slurs when thrown by afab people would be saying: “yeah and trust me, it will never be an issue for you.” While giving them the up and down with a disgusted expression. Seeing the confusion then anger then confusion go across their faces was always amazing. They couldn’t argue with it other wise they would be saying they wanted to be seen as attractive by someone of the same sex.

It would be considered rape if the person accused was a poor, non connected person with no promising future.

Not a line per se, but a scene. Watching The Haunting of Emily Rose in theaters and it’s supposed to be a serious scene and maybe even shocking or scary. The possessed main character jumps out of a barn loft or house window… I lost my shit, laughed so loud. The way the girl jumped out was just too funny looking.

When I’m overstimulated or migrainey my skin becomes sensitive to touch. So that when I am touched I have a burning sensation and oddly enough light touches are more painful than a normal touch. I often describe it as the same feeling from when I am running a fever that makes my skin burn and I get painful goosebumps all over. (The painful goosebumps happen with a migraine more than being overstimulated.)

Also I can’t stand repetitive touch, like when holding hands and the other person rubs their thumb back and forth over your hand. These repetitive motions quickly become painful and can often set off my whole body becoming too sensitive. Another weird touch thing is light touches on my back, this almost always causes my how body to start itching. It’s sooo annoying and something I have to constantly remind my partner about.

I’m bad at decisions so I will name a few that stuck with me:

1. In 5th grade I realize that lines are hypothetical and all that really exists are line segments. (My teacher basically said yes, but you’re confusing the class shut up.)
2. There are lies in all truths and truths in all lies. (A mantra I had).
3. The best way to get your way is to let someone else be the leader, act as the compromiser between the most disparate view points by saying you’re adding ideas of both sides, but actually give your positions and lipservice to the others, then finally make it all seem like this was literally everyone else’s idea and not yours. Ex. Working in a group project of 4 people to create a alternate energy model. A wants to make a wind turbine and it needs to be yellow. D wants solar panels made from copper. B just wants to do what’s easiest. So you suggest a crank powered flash light that uses copper wiring, because it captures A’s desire to have a kinetic energy conversion and using the copper wire shows D’s desire to prove the usefulness of copper in alternative energy designs. A and D didn’t say that’s why they wanted the designs, but by making the argument in a good light and attributing it to them it makes them much more likely to go along. I believe my 4th grade teacher saw what I was doing as she had us do a lot of group work because after a while she had me do my own thing.

The LGBTQ+ communities will be amazing!

So what helped me was moving while studying. That’s how I passed the Bar exam. What does that mean, multiple things. 1 way that worked was to throw a ball up and down while saying the thing I needed to memorize out loud, extra points if you could do it to a rhythm. 2. I would listen to lectures and talks on the subject while taking a walk. You could either record yourself saying your facts or find a YouTube video on the subject. It might help to hear the info in a different way. 3. Flash cards help so far as letting you know what you don’t have memorized yet. 4. Read the info word for word, then repeat as if you’re teaching someone the info.

For me moving and saying it out loud helped more than rewriting because I have learned to zone out while I write. As in I can be in a lecture and write notes while also engaging in class in real time because my hand is essentially independent of my brain. What does help writing wise is to do practice questions that way you’re rewriting, but also changing the language enough so that your brain doesn’t zone out from the repition. Repition is a personal brain killer that my brain will do absolutely anything to avoid.