🧠 Split-Screen Thinking: A Window into My Mind
Sometimes the smallest moments reveal the biggest differences in how people think.
This post isn’t about judgment or saying one way is better than another—it’s simply a glimpse into how my autistic brain works. I created an image to go with this post, and it shows exactly what I mean. It’s a simple scene: the same girl filtering water in a kitchen, but each side of the image represents a completely different thought process. On one side, she’s just thirsty. On the other side… her mind is solving the universe.
💧 The Water Thought
This morning, while filtering water for my dogs, I wasn’t just pouring water into a pitcher—I was thinking about the entire water cycle.
I thought about how water moves through us, through the air, into the ground, and back up into the clouds. I thought about how people are told not to “waste water,” and how sometimes that phrase feels like it’s been manipulated to scare us. After all, where does water really go when we “waste” it?
I was thinking about how my well water returns to the earth, how moisture becomes dew, fog, mist… how it rises, falls, flows, purifies. I even thought about how it’s possible that some of the water we drink today may have once been part of the Jordan River—maybe even touched by Jesus during His baptism.
All of that was running through my head while holding a plastic water pitcher.
Meanwhile, someone else might just be thinking, “Ooh, a nice glass of cold water sounds good right now.” And there’s nothing wrong with that! But my experience is different—layered, analytical, even spiritual.
🖼️ What the Image Shows
That’s what I wanted to show in the image.
It’s not about being “smart” or “too thoughtful”—it’s just that my thoughts don’t stop at the surface. I don’t choose to analyze everything. It just happens.
And when people understand that about autism—not as a condition to fix, but as a different way of experiencing reality—it creates compassion. It builds bridges. It says, “Maybe the person beside me is holding galaxies in their mind while I’m just sipping a drink.”
✨ Final Thoughts
So if you ever feel like your brain goes a thousand miles deeper than the situation seems to require, or that you see layers where others see a flat surface—know that you’re not alone. This image and this post are here for you.
And if you’re someone who doesn’t think this way, maybe this gives you a little window into those of us who do.
Thank you for taking a moment to step inside my world.
Chibitude 