Hey. I appreciate you reading this. I’m Tom, and I’m a 35-year old male in Haarlem, The Netherlands. I grew up in the Dutch province of Fryslan. Most people from Fryslan have a very distinctive Frisian accent when they speak Dutch, but I don’t. There are many farmers in Fryslan. None of my friends from Fryslan are farmers. But all my Frisian friends are my best friends.

Recently I went to a Taylor Swift concert and since then I’ve become even more obsessed with her music and her as a person. I actively looked to buy merch but all clothes were an oversized fit. I have a bone to pick with the people behind band merch. Mainly that they’re mostly just horribly ugly. I want to support bands and wear them on my body, but I have boundaries. I did get a Fall Out Boy band shirt but it’s mainly used as my pajama.

I have kids and a wife. I have autism. Asperger’s. Was diagnosed after school internships failed and I was showing different behavior than my peers. I’m happy I got diagnosed because I can label my traits and get help, but learning more about autism every day keeps me in a loop where I only focus on the bad things of my autism. Maybe that’s because I haven’t worked for years while I am recovering from this burnout.

I’m always afraid of oversharing but you looked for this info yourself. I’m a private person but I write publicly about autism because I hope it can help someone else. I don’t engage with people who are wrong on the internet.