By the time day 3 started, everything felt a little different.
My anxiety wasn’t gone (it never is, honestly), but it shifted from a constant, overwhelming “what if everything goes wrong” feeling to a quieter, more normal background level of anxiety. After two full days of conversations, sessions, and nonstop input, it felt like my brain was finally starting to process everything instead of just reacting to it.
Day 3 was less about the expo and more about the sessions, which honestly felt like exactly what I needed at that point. I didn’t feel the same pressure to be “on” the entire time, which gave me the space to actually sit, listen, and reflect on everything we had experienced up to that point.
Main stage session 3 started out with Yusef Farah who spoke about “The Pause.” He spoke about how our brains run on 2 speeds: avoidance and emergency. And when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. You’re either avoiding something because it feels overwhelming, or you’re reacting to something because it feels urgent. There really isn’t much in between. This is where “The Pause” comes in – creating a moment to step out of that automatic response and actually see what’s happening.
He also spoke about the difference between the “character” we create and the “player” we actually are. The character is the version of ourselves we use to fit into the world – masking, adapting, trying to meet expectations. The player is who we are underneath all of that. The idea that really stuck with me when he was speaking was this:
“Courage is the moment you stop negotiating with the lie.”
This hit in a way I didn’t fully expect. Because so much of what we do (especially as a neurodivergent person) is built around trying to fit into systems that weren’t designed for us, we negotiate with those systems constantly. We tell ourselves we just need to try harder, be more organized, be more focused, be more like everyone else. And hearing that framed as “negotiating with the lie” made me stop and think about how much of that we’ve internalized over time.
Next in main stage session 3 was Tiffany Yu, who spoke about how there are over a billion people globally living with disabilities, and how the world is still built in a way that pushes everyone toward the same definition of “abled.” She shared her own story and talked about the importance of using your voice and your experience, even when it feels uncomfortable. One thing she said that really stuck with me was:
“When you’re sharing your story, you can’t mess it up. It’s your story.”
And that connected back to everything we’ve been doing with NeuroLocker. Our story isn’t something we made up, it’s something we lived. My brother is the reason for NeuroLocker to exist in the first place. We built the app based on what we needed when he was in school, but that didn’t exist yet. That perspective is what shaped everything we’ve created so far, and it’s what will continue to shape what we build next.
Throughout the rest of the day, I went to a few more breakout sessions that focused on communication, creativity, and how the brain actually works in different environments. One of the things that kept coming up across multiple sessions was the idea that creativity isn’t a talent – it’s a way of operating. That stood out to me because it shifts the way you think about problem-solving and growth. It’s not about whether you’re “creative” or not, it’s about how you approach things and how willing you are to see them differently.
By this point, I could feel everything starting to come together. The sessions. The conversations from the expo. The feedback we received. The patterns we started noticing. It all started connecting in a way that made things feel clearer. Not easier, but clearer.
There was also something else that stood out to me, and it wasn’t just from one session – it was from the entire event: being surrounded by people who get it.
There were moments throughout the event where people shared their stories – what they’ve been through, what they struggle with, and what they’ve learned. And a lot of those stories had the same underlying theme: feeling seen. Feeling understood. Feeling like you’re not the only one navigating these challenges.
That kind of environment is hard to describe unless you’ve experienced it. It’s different from explaining your struggles to someone who doesn’t fully understand. It’s different from trying to justify why something is hard for you. It’s just…understood.
And being in that kind of space changes something. It makes it easier to talk, easier to share, easier to be honest.
By the time the closing ceremony came around, everything felt a little surreal. They had all these different activities – petting zoo, kinetic sand, coloring tables, music – and it felt like a mix of celebration and decompression after everything that had happened over the past few days. We stayed until the final “thank you for coming” message, and then headed back to the hotel.
The next day, we packed up and headed home. And, y’all, I was exhausted.
Not just tired – completely drained. I made it about an hour and a half into the drive before I had to switch and let my mom take over so I could sleep. I ended up taking a three-hour nap in the car, woke up briefly at Buc-ee’s, and then went right back to sleep. By the time we got home, I was done. But underneath all that exhaustion was the feeling of it being so worth it.
We met so many incredible people. We had conversations that mattered. We learned more in a few days than we probably expected to. And we got to experience what it feels like to be surrounded by a community that understands the things we’ve been navigating for years.
This event was a huge success for us. Not just because of the number of people we talked to, or the connections we made, but because of what it reinforced.
That what we’re building matters. That people need it. And that we’re not alone in this.
We built NeuroLocker from lived experience. We built the tool we wished we had all along. And after this weekend, that felt more real than ever.
Talk soon,
Sophea
English