Hey guys!! Sorry I’ve been AWOL since before the Conference, I threw an illustrated speech together last minute and then was putting together this awesome vlog this last week after the Conference ended! I wanted to be able to show you everything before I even bothered showing you anything, ‘cause I love you all and you deserve that much! (And I also didn’t take a single photo…) Admittedly, the vlog is about 2% misophonia-related stuff, 3% shinanigins, and, like, 95% of Chelsea (@misophonia-isnt-fun) and I teasing Ashley (@living-with-miso) about being Canadian, but it’s still pretty great! (It was Ashley’s birthday the other day, also, so go wish her happy birthday!)
This conference was the best few days of my life, and that’s surpassing touring Paris when I was in high school, so that means it was so totes bomb that I can’t even articulate it without resorting to super-colorful inappropriate words! (It’s hard, but I’m refraining myself!)
It was so nice to go to the conference because I’d never been in a space where I’d ever felt so loved and understood. Like, can you even imagine having a weekend vacation and not having to worry about people having gum?? It was the best thing ever! It was so cool to meet Dr. Tom Dozier, Dr. Marsha Johnson (who gave me a #marshahug before my talk because I was so nervous!), and Dr. Jaelline Jaffe - but the highlight was DEFINITELY meeting Ashley and Chelsea, who I’d been in communication with for over a year and a half but never met. We became such a tight group so quickly that people were totally surprised that we’d never met each other before before that weekend! I can’t even go into how amazing it was to spend the weekend with them, and we were all bawling when we had to say goodbye.
It was also really cool to meet some of our followers there! Sam from @misophoniacsunited and Sierra from @idontmindspiders were two of these kids and they were so sweet and adorable! (Go follow them!)
My talk went way better than expected, and I’ll be uploading that too when I get a copy of it! We tried to record it ourselves, but my camera wasn’t having it for some reason. I got an ask about if I’ll post the powerpoint, but unfortunately the powerpoint is just my illustrations and no actual words!! I can post a couple of those pictures here and if you guys want, I can post a hardcopy of my talk that I wrote out :) I was shaking so bad before I went up there and freaking out for about the entire day, so much so that Marsha had to give me a hug and tell me to calm down! But it was great, and I told my tragic backstory and told everyone about how I’m not upset that I have misophonia, or that my ex messed up my brain for good with his abuse - because those things have made me stronger. They’ve made me more useful.
It was such a fantastic experience, and I really hope they ask me to speak again next year! I wanted to cry when I got a standing ovation, I did not expect for things to go that well! There’s nothing more rewarding than bearing your soul to a room of people and having them accept you and your story with that much warmth.
I never wanted to leave, it was the best experience of my life, and I’m so looking forward to next year in Southern California, and all the years after that!! Thank you all for your support, it’s appreciated more than you know <3
Stay Brave Out There, (or up there, if you’re Canadian)
[Birthname]
