Sometimes, ADHD is just really awkward

Or, why I’m so unbelievably clumsy

“I think we can walk and chew gum at the same time,” my co-worker says nonchalantly on a call. I stifle an eye roll because, in my family, there’s an often-told story about how I actually couldn’t do that.

The phrase “walk and chew gum at the same time” is usually a metaphor meaning “do two easy things at the same time.” In this meeting, it meant that our team could run a social media campaign while also conducting messaging research — that the two pursuits could run simultaneously. But if you ask anyone in my immediate family, they’d probably also say that “walk and chew gum at the same time” was something I was literally incapable of doing when I was 8.

To be fair to my younger self, the direction was actually to bounce a ball, walk, and then react while on camera. A black hole for attention and praise, I had pressed my mom to let me try my hand at acting. In my medium-size town, that meant the occasional low-budget commercial or public service announcement.

On this particular day, I was cast in a student film as a nameless child whose sole job was to be frightened by the brooding lead character who, if I recall, was in the middle of a breakdown. He shouts at the little girl who’s bouncing the ball, and she shrieks and runs away. Gripping…