Blog #501: My Reaction as a Neurodivergent to the Southern California Wildfires

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I’m not a big fan of starting the year off on a sour note, but this is sadly the case when it comes to natural disasters. Mother Nature doesn’t care about your status, your professional life or your personal life. At the end of the day, it’s her way or the high way. That is the case with what has been happening in Southern California for the past week, particularly in the areas around Los Angeles.

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As you know, I have a lot of personal connections to southern California around the Los Angeles area. While most of my extended family is in Orange County, south of the fires, it is still nerve wracking to say the least. Just seeing an area of the country that is important to you on both a professional and personal level going through a natural disaster is just hard to watch.

Of course, my biggest concern in the fire dangers was ensuring that my middle school mentor and friend of 25 years along with her husband and sons were out of harm’s way. They had to contend with the Hurst fire which was largely south of their current area, near Santa Clarita. Thankfully, the fires stayed to the south and thus, they didn’t need to evacuate. The same could also be said for one of my cousins and his family that live in the Los Angeles area who also didn’t need to evacuate.

One thing that is scary about these wildfires is that they can happen at any time and at any place which makes it hard to wonder if your friends and family will one day be living this nightmare. When I was in my senior year of high school, I had to take health education as part of my graduation requirements and one thing that my health teacher empathized to me and the rest of the class, who were all freshman, to live life every day like it’s your last.

For some, it’s easier said than done and for others, it can make you go into a state of shock and fear of the unknown. But that’s the case here with these fires on account that you just have to live every day like it’s your last day because you’ll never know when your life is turned upside down.

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However, many people were forced to evacuate and now, those evacuated are going back to destroyed homes and businesses. Even Hollywood treasures were not spared by the fires. As someone who is a history buff of classic Hollywood, I do feel a sense of sadness at the fact that many locations in Hollywood lore were destroyed. There was the Will Rogers home and ranch that was destroyed by the fires along with the homes of many classic and current Hollywood celebrities like Mel Blanc, John Goodman and Sir Anthony Hopkins, just to name a few.

It’s just a shame that today’s up and coming generation that are developing interests in classic Hollywood will never get to live the experience of being around history of Hollywood past. It’s a shame because even if you try to rebuild and recapture some of that magic, it will never be the same because it will not look the same at completion. But we must also be thankful for landmarks like the Hollywood sign that are still standing because of the ongoing efforts of those who are fighting the fires.

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The neurodivergent community of Los Angeles and it’s surrounding areas are now probably going to have to take the rest of this year, if not more than that, to recover from these fires. All their personal routines, their way of life was upended and now they have to focus on trying to make the best of a bad situation.

In fact, even the thought of evacuating at the last moment are enough to cause more stress and anxiety to any neurodivergent individual. In fact, one of my followers commented that her neurodivergent son was freaking out because of the fires and there were responses offering tips to distract his mind from the fires. There was also those who, in addition to being told to evacuate, probably were even wondering if they were even going to be going back to a home when all is said and done. What makes it even harder is that many of us in the community thrive on schedules and routines.

One wrong move in our schedules can ruin the rest of our days. I get the fact that this is a natural disaster, but sometimes you just gotta play the game with the cards you have been dealt with. The best thing you can do, as a parent, guardian or caregiver, is to try and help take the wildfires out of the equation. Try to keep things at least normal for your loved ones, even if it doesn’t make all of the anxiety go away.

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On the educational side of things, there were also two schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District that were lost to the fires and many special education students are going to have a hard time adjusting to the fact that there are never going to go back to the same school again. The truth of the matter is that so many lives were turned upside down by these fires. Many students will have to merge at another school in the region and that is a challenge in itself. Some students will bounce back, and others sadly will bounce back slowly.

Sadly, these aren’t the only two schools affected as there were plenty of other schools in the Los Angeles area that were either damaged or destroyed by the fires.

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But, looking back at all of this, I do have to keep in mind that there is a human side to this whole situation. Sure, there were a lot of, if not, hundreds of homes and businesses that were destroyed, but they can be replaced. The fact is that you can’t replace a life, as hard as it is for some people to accept.

What’s more is that sadly, these kinds of events can go one of two ways: either turn people against one another or bring them closer together. As a believer in God and the hereafter, I feel that these wildfires are a test that we all must undertake in order to prove ourselves that we are able to survive any challenges. In order to do that, we would have to come together, which is what we should be doing right now.

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Catch you all later!!