I was sixteen when I was politely fired from my first job. I had never been good with counting the money at the register due to my own OCD, anxiety, and dyscalculia, and once summer was coming to an end, I'd received a text from my boss telling me I was no longer needed. I was heartbroken and incredibly disappointed in myself. I'd worked at the register of a store I'd loved since I was a kid, and I wanted to prove to myself and others that I could support my own needs and become independent. Aside from the previously mentioned OCD, anxiety, and dyscalculia, I've also been diagnosed with being on the autism spectrum disorder, depression, and having ADHD. It's an incredibly chaotic combination of disorders that have always made my life difficult. I'm passionate about my interests, and always have been. When I was four, I decided I wanted to work in animation, and I never strayed from that path. Animation was something that allowed me to communicate feelings I struggled to express with words. It was gorgeous, required a team effort, and was something I wanted to be a part of. It can be hard for me to articulate why I was upset about something, but I could always find a way to convey it through my art. It made communication very difficult for me as a kid. I'd find myself missing social cues, being too 'annoying' or too 'shy and quiet,' and I always felt like there was something distinctly wrong with me that I needed to fix. I'd grown much more confident in myself over the years, but the anxiety that followed only seemed to worsen, and I'd ended up developing severe depression. I'd get frustrated at the smallest things, like not understanding a test question, and that would immediately lead to me spiraling. I believed if I couldn't prove myself useful or perfect, I wasn't worth anything at all. I was passionate about my job, and being told that you're not needed for something you're passionate about stings. I'd entered a bad depression after being let go. I thought if I couldn't even hold a retail job, or get a few questions on a test right, then I was a dissapointment and doomed to failure. It took a lot of self-reflection and conversations with others to find out where I fit again. It was my first time working retail, and my first serious job overall. It was a learning curve, and one that was extra difficult for neurodivergent people. I had to teach myself to mask in ways that would physically exhaust me, and learn to find support and schedule my days and tasks in ways that would match my hyper-specific needs. I'd realized that I can't expect myself to learn and act the same way my peers would, because I was fundamentally different and someone who would need extra support. It's not an inherently bad thing, just a part of myself I needed to learn and accept. Currently, I'm in the interviewing phase of earning an on-campus marketing job for my school. It's a small accomplishment for many, but to me, it's helped me show how far I've come. College itself is a huge learning curve. Being independent is hard and scary, but three years of reflection and work on knowing my needs and how to meet them have taught me how to deal with it, and that I can still be proud of my own achievements.