The past month and a half has been incredibly stressful. I’ve had a lot on my plate at once, between trying to move, picking up a bunch of freelance work, and stepping into some new duties with our Chattanooga autism group. Let’s start with the good. I’ve really enjoyed working more with the autism center. When Scott Kramer (who I wrote an entry about a month ago) passed away, it left a huge void of lots of tasks that needed to be done. While a few people had helped him with these tasks in the past, he did so much work that no one person could possibly fill his shoes. So we delegated tasks. I’ve been mostly in charge of helping with the Facebook page, running events on social media, and also helping to coordinate our social events (outside of the support group). I also put a bit of time into creating a new brochure for the Chattanooga Autism Center to use at conferences now that Scott had passed away. The social media work comes naturally to me, but the brochure was a bit of a challenge. While figuring out what I wanted to say on the brochure was easy enough, my design skills aren’t great, even using a template. I tried to finish my draft of the brochure early enough that other people would have time to do some last-minute design touchups, and thankfully this happened. When you’re autistic, knowing your strengths and weaknesses is important. I got tasked with putting together the brochure because I’m the best writer in my group; however, the brochure also required some design expertise that I found myself a bit lacking in. Consequently, I made sure to allow space for others to help me with that part of the brochure.
Speaking of playing to my strengths, a friend recommended that I try the website Upwork.com because he knew another friend that had made quick, easy money editing another person’s paper on there. I gave it a try and I would highly recommend it to anyone with autism who has a marketable skill, and I will probably write a future entry on that. For me, my marketable skills are writing and editing, although I’ve been focusing mostly on editing so far. The way it works is someone will make a proposal and it can be anything from “I need this 1 5-page paper edited and I’ll pay you $5 for it” to “I need a series of papers edited over several months, and I’ll pay you $11/hour for them”. You negotiate terms and agree to a contract, but to save tax confusion, all your payments are consolidated through the Upwork platform. I started off with a bunch of smaller “editing 5-page paper” tasks and earned a bunch of quick money, and later was able to secure an interview for a longer-term task (although I did not get that job).
The site makes me optimistic for the future. I’ve begun to feel like I’m at an impasse in my job search, and the site has finally given me a way to build my editing resume and portfolio which should make it easier to get jobs in the future. It’s also given me an opportunity to get longer-term jobs, and once I move, I look forward to applying to more and hopefully getting one. Since I don’t drive, I’m especially happy to find a remote opportunity that builds my resume, and the fact it supplements my essay-scoring money nicely is just icing on the cake. It’s been a bit overwhelming at times, though. The best way to get started on Upwork is to submit a high volume of applications and hope somebody is willing to take a chance with someone with not as much experience. This works great until 4 people respond “yes” all on the same day, and suddenly you’re scrambling to crank out a high volume of work in a short period of time. Combined with moving, this feast-or-famine type of work has been a bit stressful, but it’s also been rewarding.
Moving, however, has been a bit more up and down. My sister and her partner are splitting up, and as a result of that my sister is moving and wants me to move with her. We found a good set of apartments that’s on a bus line, in a more walkable neighborhood, and closer to downtown Chattanooga than I currently am, which are three attributes that will all make it easier for me to get around. However, we’ve hit a bunch of snags along the way. I even had a security deposit put down on an apartment and power turned on, and then had to turn around and turn the electricity off and fight to get my security deposit back. This has been quite stressful. I also thought we were going to be moving in February, and then that also didn’t happen at the last minute, and that has made me paranoid and stressed about this move, especially when yet another false start happened. Since that false start, however, my sister and I have made some positive steps, and I’m confident we’ll be moving sometime in November, hopefully November 1.
Having to be harsh and a bit nasty about getting my security deposit back is not something that came easy to me. I’m a sensitive person who gets heavily affected whenever people are stern with me, which is part of why living at my brother’s didn’t work out so well. I really try to be as diplomatic and nice to people as I can all the time, and sometimes this results in me getting walked all over. As a person with autism, I’ve found my margin of error with people is already small to begin with, and so my general reasoning has been “why risk angering them even more by being stern when I ca just be nice all the time?” When I found out that we weren’t moving, though, I had had enough. I needed to express my unhappiness, and it was an incredibly difficult thing for me to do. Thankfully, unlike February, the speed bump seems to be only temporary this time, so I am holding out hope that things will come together soon. Once I do move, I am excited about the new flexibility and opportunities I will have.
So now that I’ve caught up, I can hopefully get back to updating more regularly. It has truly been a crazy month, between the unpredictable freelancing and moving situations. In September, I also felt pressure to scramble and apply for a bunch of jobs, knowing that things could potentially be financially tight with the oncoming move, and that is another thing that caused stress. Thankfully, that is another issue that appears to not be as bad as I anticipated. As a strongly analytical introvert, I am always worrying and trying to create a contingency plan for the contingency plan, and this past month has given me a lot of things to legitimately worry about. However, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now, and I’m looking forward to moving on to some new opportunities.
uniqueperspective7 
Thank you, Kevin. Reading about your journey has helped me during my particular time of grief.