In grade school, you may notice you're different than your peers. You love to talk a lot, even when the teacher is talking. People might seem drawn to you. Who has time for homework? It's more fun to daydream. As you age, your sense of wonder isn't as appreciated as it was. It's expected of us all, at some point, to give up on our dreams. It's never said outright, but daydreaming out the window, both lose their charm and hall pass in our society beyond a certain age.

I get it. It's a survival thing. How can you feed yourself if you're daydreaming at work? School is more of a boot camp to cement a hard fundamental truth deep into our skulls. Being an adult is not fun, and neurodivergent people have few satisfying career options. No matter how much educational programming we watch, the hours we spend in restrictive classrooms and cubicles, or how much fluoride we brush into our gums, we can't be swayed toward normalcy.

I'm not trying to glorify ADHD or its symptoms by any means. Neurodivergence can be exhausting. Losing things, forgetting appointments, having the tendency toward chasing addiction, thriving only in the highs of life, and supplementing in any way possible during the lows. I'd about do anything sometimes to keep my mind from shutting down and becoming a force against me like it always does in the end. Given the circumstances, I still wouldn't trade it for anything.

There's something special about neurodivergence, truly. When you do the research, you learn that the prevalence of ADHD is significantly higher amongst those who share ancestry with ancient people who migrated frequently. That tells me a lot. Perspective is everything, and now I wonder if ADHD is somehow a natural defense against the onset of homogeneous culture and its complacency-promoting tendencies instead of being a "screw-up."

We are ancient nomads in modern times. Instead of fighting bears and hastily digging irrigation ditches by hand, today, we discover electricity and send people to the moon. It requires the same set of "muscles" to pursue tasks that reach beyond the stretches of human understanding. 

A bit ago, I published an article called "The Top 6 Fictional Characters Who Have ADHD". I had lots of fun, and it's entertaining, but I think it would've been much more empowering to do an article about real people with ADHD. So here it is, "Top 7 High Achievers with ADHD".

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