Jane McNeice > Quotes

“Why can the bumblebee fly? … Because no one told it that it could not.”
― Jane McNeice, The Umbrella Picker: A Lost Girl’s journey to self-identity and finding her neurological truth

“High and effective levels of communication are the ‘gold standard’ in our society, created by neurotypicals and extroverts, and revered by the same.”
― Jane McNeice, The Umbrella Picker: A Lost Girl’s journey to self-identity and finding her neurological truth

“I, for example, will always prefer a text or an email to you calling me. I don’t like phone calls. It gives me time to process, plan my response, and to communicate in a way that I feel comfortable. It causes me less anxiety.”
― Jane McNeice, The Umbrella Picker: A Lost Girl’s journey to self-identity and finding her neurological truth

“Neurotypicals are Microsoft, you are Linux.” The latter is an open-source computer operating system, which can be tailored. It is less used overall compared to Microsoft, and less understood, but not less good.”
― Jane McNeice, The Umbrella Picker: A Lost Girl’s journey to self-identity and finding her neurological truth

“Many people confuse healthy anxiety, which is purposeful and a normal part of the human condition, with anxiety disorder. They are different. Performance anxiety is helpful, there to step us up to the mark, or to save our life.”
― Jane McNeice, The Umbrella Picker: A Lost Girl’s journey to self-identity and finding her neurological truth

“I work differently to most people in that I start with the quickest jobs on my ‘to do’ list, rather than the most arduous like most people. A completer-finisher, I instead get all the little jobs complete, then I can fully focus on the one that needs most effort, without the visual distraction and clutter”
― Jane McNeice, The Umbrella Picker: A Lost Girl’s journey to self-identity and finding her neurological truth

“Autistic girls often learn to believe that if they are incredibly good, people will like them, and all will be well.”
― Jane McNeice, The Umbrella Picker: A Lost Girl’s journey to self-identity and finding her neurological truth

“throughout my life I’ve had occasions when I’ve felt a euphoric even spiritual sense of elation, and then times when my mood is in the gutter. That information in the wrong hands could look like bipolar disorder, another common misdiagnosis placed on undiagnosed autistic people. Yet they are all features of my Autism, and nothing else.”
― Jane McNeice, The Umbrella Picker: A Lost Girl’s journey to self-identity and finding her neurological truth

“Another misnomer amongst neurotypicals is, “Well, we are all on the spectrum somewhere,” or, “We are all a bit autistic.”
― Jane McNeice, The Umbrella Picker: A Lost Girl’s journey to self-identity and finding her neurological truth

“On reflection, my being prepared for diagnosis looked like this. I knew I was going on a journey, not quite sure where, I’d just been told to pack an overnight bag. So, I’d loaded my bag with PJs, a sundress, towel, beachwear, flip-flops and sunscreen. My journey turned out to be a hiking one! I needed a rucksack, walking boots, crampons and a warm jacket. I wasn’t even nearly fit for purpose. Fortunately, I had the right people join me in that journey. They gave me a jacket, warm socks, hat and gloves, refreshments and passed me the goggles and blister cream for when it got tough. I am grateful to those who have supported me.”
― Jane McNeice, The Umbrella Picker: A Lost Girl’s journey to self-identity and finding her neurological truth

“I require external motivators, and for me this has resulted in a collection of accolades – qualifications, medals, letters after my name, and measurable achievements – visually and tangibly measurable. This can look ‘showy’ to others, and if you are regularly around a person like that, and your own self-esteem does not happen to be as robust as you would like or as robust as you believe it to be, then you can start to feel lesser or inferior.”
― Jane McNeice, The Umbrella Picker: A Lost Girl’s journey to self-identity and finding her neurological truth

“But you could hold a full adult conversation by the time you were eighteen months old, so we wouldn’t have thought it in a million years.” Very much one of the traits, I think. I had a precocious vocabulary from an early age.”
― Jane McNeice, The Umbrella Picker: A Lost Girl’s journey to self-identity and finding her neurological truth

“I have been known to write things on lists to cross them off as a record I’ve done them! Once a job is done, it simply goes from my brain immediately.”
― Jane McNeice, The Umbrella Picker: A Lost Girl’s journey to self-identity and finding her neurological truth