Tuesday 23 December 2014

Introduction: Arriving at. Awetsome.

I go by the pseudonym FA. I am a Torontonian, a future novelist, a first-year Engineering student, a person with an Aspergers Syndrome diagnosis and an advocate for social justice.

When graduating from high school I left behind a stream of nineties, a group of inspiring educators and executive positions on three extracurricular teams. One of these positions was to head my Equity Club. I left behind hosting meetings with younger students and starting hallway discussions about pink shirts. I left behind writing and presenting announcements for each campaign only to exclaim into my school's P.A. system that "forty percent of adults are bullied in the workplace. This is forty percent too high!" on Pink Shirt Day or that "I'm not dying - why do they need to alter me?" on World Autism Day.

I didn't leave the advocate behind. I welcome you to Arriving at. Awetsome.


Through weekly blog posts I will both share my Autism pride and delve into other issues of social justice from gender rights to immigrant name-changing.

A self-taken photo of the Toronto
Yonge-University-Spadina Train
at Eglinton Station in August 2014.
The word Awetsome was suggested by a former teacher as a misspelled version of Autism. (In the name of his privacy I won't draft a full-blown MLA citation.) It represents me as a person on the spectrum with what he always called my set of talents and successes. It represents me with a passion for advocacy and my fight for social justice. Meanwhile Arrving at. is simply an imitation of the newest Toronto Subway (TTC) Yonge-University Spadina line train which declares Arriving at. (station name)(Station Name) Station.

If Awetsome is a station then you have arrived at it. So step aboard. Comment. Tweet @FAAwetsome.

- FA

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