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Charlotte Reader / Her Campus
Life > Experiences

Living with Neurodivergence

Brooke Johnpier
The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at SBU chapter.

I read a book recently and it inspired me. So much so, that I’m now dedicating my profile here as my own personal blog, as I’m too stupid to create my own website. That said, I will probably still talk about cars, motorsports, etc., but I’m now going to focus on doing more personable stuff. Each week, I will reflect on something that made me feel, or an event that happened that I need to talk about. To start off this new journey (and the semester) I’m jumping off the deep-end and going in strong. 

A couple weeks before Christmas break, I started having issues with my (now ex) roommate. She had had problems with her first roommate, and my first roommate was friends with her first roommate, so we decided to swap. Everything was great, up until it wasn’t.

You see, I’m neurodivergent. I don’t understand social cues, I don’t know how to communicate effectively, and I sure as hell don’t know how to explain to people how I’m feeling. 

Instead of talking the issue out with her I snapped, because that’s the only way I know how to communicate. By the time I finally realized how to fix the problem, the RD had been contacted, and long story short, I live alone now. 

Basically, if you’re neurodivergent like me, or if you have the same problems as me I should say you’re not going to have a great personal life.

I don’t know how to communicate in the best ways, and when I do finally realize how to communicate, the situation has come and gone. I also don’t know how to deal with things like other people do, and instead of expressing our distaste with something normally, I lash out and hurt other people because I don’t know any other way around that.  

Being neurodivergent, we have to go through enough stuff as it is. Struggling to do basic daily tasks, making eye contact, etc. It doesn’t make things easier for us when the people I think are on my side turn against me because I did something that’s out of my control.

My piece of advice to you is this: be kind to people, and give them the time of day. You never know what someone is going through, even if they put up a tough front.

Brooke Johnpier is a contributor to the SBU chapter of Her Campus. She writes about the more "manly" topics of the site, including automotive, motorsports, mechanical, technical, DIY, and anything hands-on. Brooke is also using this platform as her personal blog, of which she will talk about more personal things that she feels the world should hear about. Besides Her Campus, Brooke is a part-time motorsports journalist for Speedway Illustrated, a columnist for Race Pro Weekly and Dirt Track Digesr, and a staff writer as well as a social media promoter for The Podium Finish, where she is interning. Brooke is also a writer for TAPinto Greater Olean, WSBU The Buzz, and PolitiFact NY. Brooke is also involved with St. Bonaventure's literary magazine, The Laurel. Brooke is currently a sophomore at St. Bonaventure University where she is majoring in Sports Media with minors in Native American and Indigenous Studies & English. You can also find Brooke working as an assistant in the Koop Lab and upstairs in the office, making her money. In her free time, Brooke loves reading, going to the local racetrack, riding four-wheelers, working on cars, and riding in tractor trailers. Brooke is a music lover, and will talk about most any genre, especially her favorites which are rock and rap. Brooke is also a percussionist, a published author, and a women's rights activist. Brooke is also a member of several lineage organizations, and currently holds a national position in one of them. As well as writing for campus media, Brooke is involved with Faith in Fiction, Jandoli Women in Communication, the History Club, College Democrats, and the Indigenous Student Confederacy. A fun fact about Brooke is that she was the only female to ever be in the top 5% of the Automotive Technology class at the trade school she attended in her junior and senior years of high school.