My story

I’m Alicia

I’m a creator, a founder, a publisher, an author, a songwriter, an app builder, a poet, a mother, and someone who helps people find their way through change. I’ve done so many things in my life: travelled, sung and volunteered. Everything in my life revolves around creative work that, in one way or another, helps others. Looks good, doesn’t it? I also have a secret expertise you won’t find on my LinkedIn profile:

I am an unwilling expert in setbacks and cycles.

For eighteen years I have been ill, sometimes worse, sometimes better. I’ve had to relearn to walk, had many different operations, and dipped in and out of depression. For months at a time my mind thought in stutters. Whenever I felt a little better, I would throw myself ferociously into catching up and doing things. I managed some big things, some small things, and sometimes not much at all. I constantly overdid it, using energy I did not have, relapsed, doubled down with burnout, and the cycle continued.

Then I discovered that I was autistic, and other pieces of my life finally made sense. After another major operation this year, complete with setbacks and exhaustion, I finally began to heal. Again I found myself in the in-between: not quite well, but longing to do everything at once, with so much time to make up for.

Lying in bed, with steaming tea beside me and Clyde, our cat, curled up nearby, I built myself a little map to see my dreams clearly and finally have a sense of how far I had come. I created a companion to talk things through with. On My Way grew from those two things.

I knew that if I was going through this, many other people might be in a similar place: longing to get back to a life that seems to have left them behind, yet without much energy to do it. I reached out over the internet to talk to people and find support. And then I made On My Way, for anyone finding their way back to a life that feels like theirs.

I hope it helps you meet the you you used to be, and the you you can now become.

Alicia