So whilst April 2020 was the date that The Neurodivergent Lawyer was born, my blogging and content creation journey actually started before then.
In December 2019, I was invited to write for another peer blog called Inlaw. The site is dedicated to sharing stories and experiences and raising the profile of working in-house in, say, a legal services department. The site owner Charlotte Lakin trained and qualified in-house, and is still working in-house too.
I find that it is useful to go back over some of our older creations because it is helpful to see how far we've come from when we first started, whether that's from a knowledge and awareness perspective, or a skill perspective with our writing.
For me, it was mid-2019 or so when I started a much deeper learning journey about myself and my identity, and it was around that time when I wanted to share it but didn't quite know how to start or where to start. But after Charlotte and I got to speak more about our experiences, she invited me to write for the site and I enjoyed it very much. Arguably, it was that moment that gave me the momentum to start The Neurodivergent Lawyer!
At the same time, I can look back on this and see that back then, I can agree that I was still learning about myself and how I would look at my identity and the language I would use to refer to myself, for example.
See how I used "I have Asperger Syndrome"? Whereas now I'm using identity-first language to refer to myself, and I don't use the term Asperger Syndrome much now as it isn't my preferred way of identifying myself. Back then, I believed I was right in how I would speak about myself. It was how I chose to do so at the time, which doesn't make me wrong, but instead it shows the evolution of how I've come to understand myself and what my preferences are now that I've had a chance to learn more (particularly around referring myself, as I did a much deeper dive into it here).
This isn't any kind of indictment on my ability as a writer, or on myself as an autistic man, but a reminder that we all had to start somewhere and we're allowed to not be perfect at any point that we are working. We're allowed to be critical of ourselves, but also remember to see where we've come from and how we got to where we are today, whether we take 20 months or 20 years to get here!
So for my first experience of blogging this time 2 years ago, have a look here: Philip Steventon- Paralegal at Realty Law Ltd (officialinlaw.com)
Don't forget to give the site a follow on social media as well!
Be safe and be well! :)
P