Celebrating

Many autistic people have their ‘special interests’ or ‘hyperfixations.’

Doctor Who was mine. It still is.

The idea of exploring time and space, the concept of all life being valuable and sacred, the moral questions the show raised – I adored it all. In a very traumatic time in my life, the show was one of the things that kept me grounded. It gave me hope that life was worth living, seeing joy in both the mundane and unknown.

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Even more, it impacted my life in ways that I genuinely never expected:

  • It exposed me to cultures and concepts beyond my small southern town – places we had never learned about and definitely never expected to go.
  • It provided an avenue for friendships, forged online through our shared love for the show. These friendships became chosen family – and in one particular case, my love and my other half.
  • It made me feel like I could be brave and take risks, even if I’m scared. Traveling through time and space is dangerous and risky – but growing up can be too.
  • It gave me the understanding and acceptance that even though I’ve changed, I’m still the same person. Brain injury and chronic illness transformed a lot of how I exist these days.
    The transition to using a wheelchair, using a communication device, needing medical support – my body does not work the same way as it once did and feels unknown to me. But yet, I am still myself.

It might’ve started out as a mild curiosity in a junkyard, but it really has turned into a spirit of adventure in its own.

And my life is so much better for it.

A photo from the pre-wheelchair days – a person holding onto a cane, standing in the doorway of a blue police box. They’re dressed as the Fourth Doctor, complete with a long knit scarf. Next to them is a grey alien called a dalek.

One thought on “Celebrating”

  1. Pretty cool. 🙂 Brings to mind that people have made a 4th Doctor figure and a Tardis for use as scenic features in Trainz Railroad Simulator computer program. Was quite astonished, and greatly pleased, several years back to see that unmistakable scarf and hat on the platform at a passenger station. And eventually there were also figures who kind of looked like the Brigadier and Sergeant Major. On account of developments with my health I no longer watch TV, but did watch some Dr. Who on PBS here in the US in the 1980s. Oh, and just remembered in 2011 there was a YouTuber named sillysparrowness, a German gal who taught English in German schools, who built her own portable modular TARDIS at home, just checked and the videos are still available.

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