So either a trait or idea someone has that others make fun of, that saves the day?
My example:
Mine is back in 7th grade there was going to be a chocolate fondue day. 5 kids volunteered to bring chocolate chips for the chocolate fountain, then everyone else just said what they would bring. Most people said like marshmallows, Graham crackers, pretzels, the like.
One kid said he’s bringing chocolate bars. The teacher was confused and actively tried to discourage this idea. But the kid was insistent that dipping cold chocolate bars in a chocolate fountain was amazing. Some kids even made fun of him a bit, but the teacher moved on cause at the end of the day he could could bring what he wanted and it was all volunteer so can’t be picky.
The day comes along and… most of the kids who were supposed to bring the chocolate chips for the chocolate fountain didn’t. The fountain couldn’t even start with how little chocolate showed up. I think only one person brought a bag, which was not enough at all for a class of 25.
Then comes in our Rudolph with a giant bag of fun sized hershy milk chocolate bars.
There was no clapping or anything dramatic, but as soon as he showed up the teacher pulled him aside and a few minutes later his chocolate bars had been melted in the teacher break room and chocolate fountain day was saved!
I worked at a Boy scout summer camp, which was underfunded and run by 14-20 year old boys. We had to spend almost a week setting up camp. Big old army tents made of canvas, took at least 4 people to set one up. They requires these big nails, maybe 10 inches in length, as stakes. Apparently they must have been very expensive because we never had enough.
Enter “Jamie”. Jamie was most definitely on the spectrum. Cool enough kid, but always had a slushie ring around his lips and a messy uniform. Kind of a disaster if you got paired with them, because just could not stay focused long enough to do anything.
Well I got tasked with leading a team of around 20 on the task of setting up a section of the camp. Good team, but within an hour we were out of nails. No nails, no tents getting set up no 😞😭. Enter Jamie. He kept getting passed around from group to group because he couldn’t handle the individual tasks. However, it turns out Jamie was an absolute bloodhound for finding stakes that had been forgotten or abandoned from the previous years shutting down of the campsites. Through Jamie, we found out there were thousands of these nails scattered throughout the woods. I gave him two helpers and asked him to stay ahead of our team and keep us fed with stakes so we could keep working. The helpers looked but also kept an eye on Jamie from going too far from the group. Within a couple minutes Jamie had enough stakes for the rest of the group and we kept going. Worked like a charm.
Bro I can’t imagine how much of an eye for detail you must have to be able to notice where a stake was driven into the ground in an over grown forest. Like was he just really good at noticing where the underbrush had grown funny?
It’s a nack. See one, the others will likely be in a tent shaped layout. Some brains are just very good at visual pattern matching.
I have an unbroken record for being the person that finds anything tiny and lost. In school the kids called me “night vision”.
Lose a ball over the fence an 1am. 10 people looking. Can’t find it. Get me to look and I find it in 1 minute or less. Lost a diamond or earring backing in shag carpet? I’ll find it ao fast you won’t believe it.
I’ve occasionally had to pretend it takes longer to find it, just so they don’t think I pranked them and took it.
My wife is like this. We’ll be on a walk and she’ll stop mid sentence to walk ten feet into someone’s yard and grab a four leaf clover. She does this all the time and we have a huge collection of them, and that’s with us usually giving them away to people we pass further down on our walks.
I notice negatives to it as well.
When I trim the driveway hedge I have to pick any errant cuttings out of the rose garden. So I spend about 1-2 hours looking for one type of leaf amongst another type of leaf.
When I close my eyes for the next 12 or so hours all I can see is the type of leaf I was looking for, my brain is so locked on to looking for the pattern.
It’s a similar thing with four leaf clovers - I never in my life found one, even during periods where I’ve been scanning every bit of green while hiking. But then we had a friend who isn’t really paying attention to her surroundings, and just randomly goes ‘oh, moment’, and picks up a four leave clover from a few metres away.
Seems my daughter is also developing that talent - last summer she picked up a few while playing outside.
Keep your head moving like a caffeinated puppy dog and look for the tiny glint of sunlight on the stake head as you tromp through the campsite.
Neurodiversity is a blessing in disguise; we look, without seeing that!
However, it turns out Jamie was an absolute bloodhound for finding stakes that had been forgotten or abandoned from the previous years shutting down of the campsites.
Yeah, stakes aren’t expensive but replacing all the equipment kids lose is expensive.
“Why are we all out of spike?”
Jamie pulling hundreds of spikes out of the ground that were lost by previous campers
My wife takes the piss out of me for turning every task into a spreadsheet, but who ate a perfectly cooked, stress-free Christmas dinner exactly when it was supposed to be ready? We all fucking did, that’s who.
As a fellow spreadsheet nerd, can you explain your plan of attack? Like, how many dishes and how varied are the cooking temps/times in order to make everything come out of the oven and off the stove in time? And do you account for variables like washing utensils for reuse and/or operator error? I’m so uncoordinated in the kitchen that I can turn a 45 minute recipe into a 90 minute recipe just because I’m scrambling to find the right spices or washing utensils between uses or I spend too much time measuring things with absolute precision.
If I could plot out the entirety of the process in a series of Excel tables, I might actually be able to cook a meal efficiently.
That’s the actual sheet. If you adjust any times, sort on column E to get it back in the right order.
Super curious to take a look, but it looks like I need to request access. Could you update the sharing settings so anyone with the link can view?
My wife’s family made fun of me the first couple times we met because I never go anywhere without my Leatherman and a pouch with my daily survival gear on my belt. I told them I like to be prepared. I took a few months of ribbing about my “murse”. But then we went her niece’s kid’s birthday party at a park. Kid got a remote control car, but the battery compartment was screwed shut. Guess who has a screwdriver? 20 minutes later her niece got stung by a wasp. I provide a little dauber of Sting-eze and some antihistamine. Now anytime someone needs a tool, first aid, or whatever, they come looking for me. I’ve removed splinters, opened cans and bottles, pulled out staples, sewed a broken bra strap - and nobody pokes fun about the stuff on my belt.
Appropriate username.
“Deviation from the norm will be punished unless it is exploitable.”
As a kid I took it to mean: everyone has a place in society. It might just take a while to figure out what your purpose is
Just like evolution.
So did you you guys at least dip a cold chocolate bar in it? Was it good lol?
Haha don’t think we ever found out, I think they were all conscripted for the fountain. I hope he saved one for himself since it was his favorite snack!
It’s moments like that were the kid should have told the teacher to fuck herself, and go get the chocolate someplace else xd
This one guy I worked with might have been homeless. The dude smelled like feet, old people and idk, ranch dressing? He claimed he had a medical reason that he smelled so bad, but idk. The dude always looked greasy as fuck like he hadn’t showered in 2 or 3 weeks. He was also notoriously slow at his job. The guy was a bagger at a grocery store, and only worked closing shifts. Other departments that were short handed would always steal the baggers when they had people call out sick. One night our department gets a call saying was the seafood department was asking for help.
Well, guess who I sent over there? Honestly, I just wanted to get him out of the department because he literally made the whole department reek. Turns out when you are surrounded by raw seafood, it’s harder to notice the guy smells so bad. He eventually would go on to work there and meat department, and I heard after I left, the management actually gave him the team member of the year award. I would have never in a hundred years guessed he’d have gotten that, but I was glad it worked out for him.
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love this, thank you for sharing. after 33 years of life hiding and compensating for my perceived differences, earlier this year a healthcare professional finally diagnosed me with AuDHD. i have always had several surprising standout skillsets with which, as an adult, i have been able to monetize in order to support myself. but i have also always struggled severely in a number of unexpected areas that have a noticeable impact on my daily life. the context my diagnosis provides has been full of healing and understanding. i can be proud of my unique abilities and also accepting of my unique limitations.
it is super exciting to hear how another neurodivergent mind has learned to harness their gifts even amongst the obstacles. cheers!
Everyone made fun of me for bringing a bunch of handheld radios to my sister’s campsite wedding (except my sister, actually, who loved the idea). Well it turns out the lot we were going to park everyone at was a tow away lot, so we needed to valet cars. My radios came in clutch for coordinating that.
I’d imagine at least a few rock stars were made fun of for being in band or chorus. Can’t speak to it personally though
I heard once that shakira was kicked out of a choir for sounding “goatlike”.
I mean, they weren’t wrong.
I may have missed my moment bc I’m petty. I’m not inclined to help people who treat me like shit until they think I might be useful.
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I’ve had several. It’s a big part of my personality to take discouraging remarks as a sign that there’s an opportunity for improvement.
Oh wow look it’s that person who can’t elaborate on their stories.
Me too. Why, this one time
Would you care to share some? Can’t tell if this comment is a setup
I don’t know what you mean by setup.
I was a boy scout, the motto of which is “be prepared.” So I just subconsciously ask myself “what could go wrong” and prepare for those hypotheticals.
I don’t really keep track of these things because it’s so frequent.
