All my life I realized I was different and not in a good way. When I was 8 years old my parents decided to take me to a specialist in childhood behavior problems. (I’m saying this with the memories of an 8 year old child.). During that time, I also had my IQ tested and my mother told me I was over 130. If I had been diagnosed with autism my parents never let me know.
I had a deep connection with animals, even more specifically reptiles and amphibians. Most girls my age were scared of them but I was in my element around them.
My earliest memories of masking were around 6th or 7th grades. It was at that point that I started really caring what other people thought of me. The older I became and more experiences of life I had, the better I became at masking. I became a nurse around the age of 31. At that point, I was a single mother with 2 small children to take care of. My first few years in the nursing profession were spent working in hospitals, the OR, the ER and some on the floor. The constant interruptions, the flickering fluorescent lights and the non-stop sensory overload took its toll on me. I cared deeply for the patients and could take care of everyone else’s needs all day…and completely ignore my own nervous system. Later on, I moved into the Home Health industry and it worked for a few years, I could travel during daylight hours by myself. The taking call became difficult and was often affected by the high turnover of staff that seems to plague most home health companies. I learned that my best way to mask was to keep my head down, be on-time and get my paperwork done.
It was 2009 that I decided to go into school nursing. I was married at the time to a school teacher and I discovered that the local district had an unusual program in their Health and Medical Services Department. They had 12 Registered Nurses on staff to travel to their assigned schools around the district to teach Prevention Health Lessons. This job required no working weekends or nights, no on-call. It seemed perfect for me to move into. I discovered fairly quickly that working in a school system was not a bed of fragrant roses but I really believed in what I was teaching and I saw the importance of students needing a knowledge of this content during their life’s journey. I would work in schools as a clinic nurse during the summer to make some extra money. There I was, attempting to make a spouse happy with no thought to my own needs (again). I worked in that department of my local school system until I moved to Texas in 2022. I didn’t really discover my love of being around young children until I started working in the school and the district I currently am in now. Then, I had a conversation with a parent that changed everything…
Neurodivergent Nurses 
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