Welp, it’s Halloween season again! Thus, my annual reminder: Halloween, for me, marks the beginning of the holiday seasons! I’ve always secretly loved Halloween. It’s probably because I’m a rebel and wasn’t allowed to celebrate it when I was younger, so I’m a fan! However, once again, despite the joyous feelings of festivity, it’s impossible for me to ignore how burns, scars and wounds are continuously being commodified as props of the grotesque, and being used to evoke fear. And it honestly sucks so much that my real, lived trauma is a horror trope. I don’t mind spooky fun, but why does Halloween get to exploit bodies that society already ostracizes? It’s just reinforcing terrible biases, narrow definitions of worth and perpetuating really harmful misconceptions about those of us with visible differences. I get that it’s impossible to ignore, all of us with visible differences understand that. But our bodies and scars are not something to be mocked, feared or pitied. We are people just like you and we deserve the same respect and understanding. We are already navigating a world that is so quick to judge us, to stare at us and create distance from us. So when Halloween reinforces physical differences as forms of villainy, then just as we wrongfully attribute beauty to automatically being virtuous, we are now more dehumanized and seen as a symbol for fear and evil. The alienation hurts. Imagine being somewhere with your kids or friends at Halloween and someone genuinely asking what you’ve come as… and it’s your own, everyday face. This isn’t a poor me thing, but I’ve also had people say to me, “Woah, it’s not Halloween yet!” and “Everyday’s Halloween with that face.” I am NOT a monster. I don’t mind consuming some fear for a thrill, but how about not at the expense of others (and my own) real, lived experiences. We all bear wounds and scars, visible and invisible. So this year I just encourage you to pause, have some compassion, and consciously choose not to consume trauma cosplay aesthetics for Halloween this year. 🎃🫶🏻🧡

Never allow someone else's inability to understand your ability to understand what they're unable to explain become a limitation on your ability to understand what they were trying to explain in the first place. …or something like that. 🤔

Are you alright? You’ve barely touched the present moment.

Do you hear the birds?

Peel away your gloom! Orange is peaking! Show your Cult of Orange fervor in the comments!

Autistic? Let’s talk!

To err is human, to moo is bovine.

I hope you realize, as soon as possible, just how fragile the privilege of having someone in your life really is. Any conversation, any embrace, any phone call, any silly little reel you might send to someone, could unknowingly be the last piece of yourself that you ever get to leave with them. I think we often fall into living so comfortably in the assumption that there will always be another tomorrow, another opportunity to apologize, another chance to say what we should've said today. But life has never promised us that. People can disappear from our lives with such frightening suddenness. Sometimes the smallest unfinished moments become the heaviest things we carry. It's something I'm still learning to live with. I wish I'd spent less time taking everything so personally, less time allowing fear and pain to speak for me, and more time remembering that the people we love are not guaranteed to be here when we're finally ready to soften, listen, show up, or forgive.

ASMRtistry🎨 After Dark 🌙 xitter.cf/i/broadcasts/1qGoNYpzn…