Home > Author > Anna Whateley
1 " My heart beats too loudly at the change in plans.Changes happen sometimes; they aren’t always a bad thing. I grip my coffee cup and wriggle my toes. I can do this, the coffee says; of course you can, the meds reply. "
― Anna Whateley , Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal
2 " Apparently, letters mean you should change. I need to learn a lot of rules instead of going to the park. I like rules. I don't like talking about rules. "
3 " Once, in the morning, I decided I would be a biologist, and spent hours in the library studying, preparing for my amazing career. I told the librarian, who still smiles at me. She must think I will get out of this place and make it one day. One book I found about organisms was so fascinating I sat down with it in the stacks, engrossed. It took me fifteen minutes to realise it was about orgasms. I read until lunch and then hid the book on the shelf. "
4 " My room is the safest place my body has. My mind doesn’t really have a safe place. "
― Anna Whateley
5 " My alphabet hates itself. Like ... imagine someone says, ‘Think outside the box.’ My hyperactive mind creates a sphere and laughs at the box and researches for hours on end how much better spheres are. Then my Autism freaks out that I broke the rules without realising there were any, and wonders why we are supposed to thinkinside cardboard boxes in the first place. Surely being inside cardboard boxes isn’t comfortable. "
6 " Nothing escapes my alphabet powers. It’s exhausting. "
7 " I know all the tricks because I study people. I’m the mimic, the lyrebird. They created me. "
8 " But I don’t need to get it right all the time; no one else does. Lyrebirds don’t just mimic. They make their own songs too, and dance to their own beats. "
9 " They said I could pass as normal, that I was clever and no one would ever know. They lied. Not about passing. The lie was hidden beneath, in the desire for me to be the same as them. I am extraordinary. They should have helped me soar, be more of me, not less. "
10 " The parts of me they fixed might not be broken. This anger is not a wasted emotion. It’s powerful and changes everything. This anger will fight. "
11 " No therapist teaches you about that. They just want you to know how to look neurotypical. Not to know how to vote or make your world different so you don’t look so wrong in the first place. "
12 " They all need lies, so many that I can’t keep up with which lies are white and which are colourful. "
13 " Let scars form where the sutures fail, and keep on going. "
