About Me — Part 1

I’m not exactly the most open of people. I find it hard to trust and be open with others as a default position. I’m a quiet person. I don’t like blowing my own trumpet either, and most of the things I do I don’t want to overshadow with myself. But I think for a moment I’m going to try and set this aside. The way I see it, if I want to justify my position on the things I want to talk about here, then people need to understand my background. There’s also the simple fact that — at least for a bit — it would be nice to have some recognition or appreciation for the amount of stuff I’ve done and the positions I’ve taken over the years.

So, this post is aimed at helping you understand me a bit more. I’ll try and split this into some facts about me in general, and then about me in terms of my activities and views within the Christadelphian community.

I must admit, this is going to be extremely lopsided. I was struggling to find characteristics and acts that weren’t inherently tied to my involvement in Christadelphia. But, we’ll see how we go.

So. About me.

I was born in Westmead Hospital in Sydney some 33 and a bit years ago, and have lived in Sydney all my life (aside from a few months where I happened to ‘live’ in Qld which gave me a far less restricted license. Good times that). Historically I’d say Sydney is the best place, but our government screwing up Covid these last two months does make that seem a bit hollow ufortunately.

I am autistic. Sadly it never got picked up during childhood — which has definitely had repercussions — and only picked up at age 29. It definitely explains some of my behaviours and mannerisms at least.

My life has been impacted throughout by mental illness. I had a grandparent with Alzheimers/Dementia, an uncle with Schizophrenia, and in particular a mother with Bi-polar and/or Schizophrenia — I can never remember which it was or if it was both. The latter shaped much of my life growing up in between managing her behaviours and outbursts, as well as the odd case where someone would go after her in an effort to go after me. I certainly had to grow up a lot faster as a result. It’s not easy when they insist they’re cured and no longer impacted illness. The damage that has been done to my wellbeing as a result — both through enduring through her illness, and the effect on my own mental health not being picked up — is still continuing today.

I’ve been single all my life, which was certainly not my choice. I’ve liked people, and had my share of crushes over the years, some for years at times, though there’s only been one girl I’ve ever been catagorically in love with. One day I’d hope this will change, though part of this will involve sort out some of the challenges within Christadelphia for me.

My primary occupation has been in IT. I always like figuring out how things worked and how to make the things I need work without much equipment — my first ‘new’ computer I didn’t actually purchase until 2008.

There are other things to be sure, and I imagine I’ll touch on them as we go through this. But not it’s time to focus on Christadelphia.

-Dan