So now the Queen has left the building. Laid to rest with her husband of 73 years, her parents and her younger sister, Queen Elizabeth II can now enjoy a nice heavenly retirement upstairs in paradise.
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But that shouldn’t be the end of the Queen’s influence, right? Of course, right! You see, every single one of us who were born after 1952 when Elizabeth became Queen know that she was the only English monarch we had ever known. During that time, many of us saw her as an influence, being inspired to live our lives the same way as her and the royal family (well, most of them, at least).
What I mean by that is that being a royal is more than just smiling and waving. Being a royal involves being with your subjects and doing your job to a certain standard and degree. When it comes to being a role model, I often consider Queen Elizabeth II as one of my role models that I try to emulate.
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As a self-advocate, I am considered a role model to some people and the only way to be a role model is to get myself out there without overdoing it. Sure, like I said before, I made some stupid social mistakes that I beat myself up over, but do you think that celebrities like the Royal Family were ever perfect?
The truth of the matter is that Queen Elizabeth II was human and made some pretty bad mistakes, but she learned from them and moved on. During the 10 day mourning period, I had the chance to stop and think about what will happen now that Charles III is king and the Queen isn’t there?
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Being neurodiverse, I am very mixed when it comes to change. But do you think that her majesty was stuck in the same world that was continuously evolving during her 70 years? Again, I try to preach to people both virtually and in-person that if you want to survive in life, you got to be adaptable while maintaining some level of personal standard.
Throughout my life, I saw Queen Elizabeth II take on various challenges and she kept her personal standard while everything else changed around her. A lot of families and individuals are resistant to change and anyone who is aspiring to be a self-advocate and/or public speaker wants to do things their way, but the truth of the matter is that it doesn’t work like that.
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But another trait that I am trying to take from the Queen in a way, is to have a sense of personal boundaries for myself. In recent years, I have seen the hard way of why some people want to be private from others and I am trying to adapt a similar measure for myself.
Mostly, I have recently started to become more and more private on social media not just for my mental health, but also just because being private is just as good as being public. If the Queen could do it, why not me?
In fact, the Queen had boundaries that were crossed at one point after Diana was killed and she let the Prime Minister have it when it came to her grandchildren:
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In conclusion, aspiring self-advocates and public speakers should look to people like Queen Elizabeth II to build a reputation and self-respect for themselves and the people around them. What’s more is that they don’t have to be celebrities, they could be people that are in your family or someone you are good friends with.
The same especially holds true for those who are neurodiverse. Being a role model involves maintaining self-control and dignity for yourself and others and it certainly continues to help me.
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Catch you all later!!
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