Today is World Autism Awareness Day, so it seems like an appropriate time to make an announcement. I’ve been putting it off because I don’t really like making people aware of me – but I can’t put it off forever! So here goes…

After 20 years, I’m leaving my Associate Lecturer role at The Open University next month.

I don’t manage change well, as 20 years in the same job probably proves! My autistic brain is happy when I can put lots of things on mental autopilot, so that it can reserve its attention for other important things, like overthinking conversations and getting stressed about the tiny noise coming from the light bulb.

But when everything becomes so routine that your whole life is on autopilot, that’s when it’s time to make a change – no matter how challenging that change might be!

So I’m leaving my old job and starting a new one. I’ll be working as a Psychoeducation Clinician, supporting people who have recently been diagnosed with autism and ADHD – and those of you who know me will be well aware how much that work matters to me.

I’m also still working part-time as Creative Director on fraut, the growing library of support apps for autistic people and their families: and if you’re interested in supporting autistic people in the workplace, we have a new, completely free app available for download: https://fraut.co.uk/fraut-workplace/. Our third app is nearly ready for release, too, so keep an eye on the website!

My last piece of news is that I’ve been appointed to a new role at The Open University, as a Visiting Fellow. That will allow me to continue with my academic research, and importantly it means that I won’t lose touch with the brilliant department that’s been my home for most of my working life.

So this isn’t really a goodbye to Classics, or to academia, or to the OU – but it is the end of a chapter for me. That chapter has been outstanding because of one thing: the people in it.

I always say that I have the best students, and I’m not kidding. I’ve met some incredible students who’ve inspired and challenged me, and stayed friends long after they’ve graduated. After 20 years there are too many of them to give shout-outs to – but I consider myself very lucky to have had the chance to work with them. Over the years I’ve won various teaching awards, but I’ve always felt a bit embarrassed about that, because honestly it’s not even slightly difficult to be an innovative teacher when you have such fantastic students!

There’s so much I will miss about my Associate Lecturer job; but I’m excited about the new adventure. Excited and an absolute wreck, because (and I’m obliged to mention it again because it’s World Autism Awareness Day) I’m autistic. Loss of routine often makes me physically ill, and it narrows my communication capacity so that outside of work I can’t really talk or function properly. This morning I read something very funny and found that I can’t actually laugh any more: apparently my emotional wires are so crossed that I cry instead! It gave me quite a shock; but now I can add it to my very long list of weird things that happen when I’m overwhelmed.

I don’t mention my struggles much because I prefer for people not to see them: but ‘awareness’ means showing the reality, not just the airbrushed version. Life is definitely tough right now, and I have no bandwidth for anything beyond coping with this change – so I do apologise for disappearing from social media, conferences, group chats and all the other things I’ve dropped! I’ll be back eventually – but for now it’s all I can do to eat, shower and move occasionally.

That’s why it matters so much to me to move into psychoeducation. There’s still not much awareness in the world about how autistic people process information and function in non-autistic spaces; and even worse, many late-diagnosed autistic people don’t have much awareness of their own needs. Lack of awareness leads to autistic people trying to power through challenges without help or understanding; because they don’t think to ask for help, and nobody thinks to offer. And then things go horribly wrong, even though everybody has the best intentions.

Education can fix that. Awareness can fix that. And I want to be part of it. So even though I hate change, this particular change is worth the effort.