“There were definitely plenty of moments where I tried to compensate for my social failings by throwing myself into the work that was needed. Being able to use my hands and my mind well to fix things, to teach others, to handle challenging tasks. It was a way to make up for the way that I clearly wasn’t developing in the way that was expected. And even when I did grow, I wasn’t exactly fitting well into the standards that the culture seemed to require of others. If only I had known then that there was a reason for that.”