Story Behind My User/blog Name - Tumblr Posts

just submitted the paperwork to change my legal name so it's storytime, damn it: why's your user/blog name All of the Above?

warning: it's a bit sad, but it's about my time as a kid, so you knew that already.

let me tell you a story. a story of a young, mixed race, queer, disabled, afab kid with some trauma and emotional issues you could walk to the moon on. actually, i won't tell you the whole story; safety online and all that. but, i'll tell you the bits you need to know.

notice how that entire list was just attributes that are unchangeable? none of that list mentioned that the kid liked to sing, draw, write, and talk to the quiet students in class because they liked their stories and nonthreatening body language.

because that's what i was. that's what everyone made me out to be: a list of things. but they didn't expect it! they said, looking at a kid who learned to pretend to be NT, completely white, and hetcis out of a habit just to adapt to the majority of people around them.

it just became inevitable. that i would always be strange, and people would turn to the words, the indicative words, as a quick explanation for whatever they needed justification for accommodating.

so i wanted to take that for myself. say, "yes, i check every single box you have," and stare them down. because i'm more than the sum of my parts and all that.

tl;dr sometimes, something is so ubiquitous that the only way not to be driven a bit mad by it is to reclaim it. so it's ironic. i'm "all of the above" but, really, just one person.