Bio
A long time ago, in a reality not so far away, Colleen would have described themself as useless. Receiving an ADHD diagnosis at age 18 helped, a bit. They then reached a point where everything seemed like too much. Being an adult came at Colleen in a never ending torrent. No matter how hard they tried - and they tried hard, every day - they felt like they were flailing about in thin air, never making progress toward anything. Even simple, level entry jobs overwhelmed them and made their life a misery. Bosses said they were inconsistent and overly emotional.
Then, in secret, their mom came up with a plan. There were these people, called ADHD coaches, who facilitated mysterious and powerful things in offices and over phone lines. Together client and coach stormed the castles of lives stuck in ruts of despair and built ingenious tools. Colleen's Mom set out to connect with one such mystic being and the life of her child would be forever changed.
This is where the montage music starts and it's definitely AC/DC.
Over the next six months, Colleen worked hard with their coach, building what seemed at the time like tiny, inconsequential things. These rapidly grew and built on each other to form the foundational structure of their life as it is today. A suit of armor that holds them upright and protects them from what adult life used to do to them, built in a cave, from a box of scraps. As with everything in life, these have grown and evolved over time, but the principles, begun so long ago, remain.
Then the suggestion was made that perhaps Colleen had special coaching powers. They could understand things no one else could; that's why they're so empathetic. It's an ADHD trait. This power, which had until now made them think they were unfit for the workplace, became their greatest weapon in the fight against the powers of evil. ADHD coach training was not an easy challenge and even when they succeeded, life with ADHD is rarely easy. It is, however, what they strive to support all of their clients to find: something they could sink their teeth into.
There's a big difference between something that is hard and not a strength, and something that is hard and is a strength. The first circumstance causes a person with ADHD's life to be an unbearable misery. The second can ignite a life and shoot it into orbit around a planet to bust through a trade war blockade and save the day.
Colleen's life now boasts just enough structure to keep things running smoothly, combined with just enough chaos to keep things interesting. It is stuffed full of polyhedral dice, cosplay, movies about super-soldiers and genius billionaire playboy philanthropists, TV shows about nerdy voice actors playing Dungeons and Dragons or demon hunting brothers, and books about songs of ice and fire and worlds shaped like a disc. They believe that life can be about the things that make us feel alive, instead of about work, stress, and guilt-ridden stolen moments of happiness.
Colleen was trained as an ADDCA Associate Coach at the ADD Coach Academy.