Hello @aspieandme,

Welcome to Steemit! I am intrigued and inspired by your story. I hope to read a lot more from you.

Small suggestion: it is common for a new member to publish the first post with introduceyourself as the primary tag. Maybe you could edit the first tag of this post. It enables us to find newcomers more easily and help them on their way by upvoting them.

Here's a link to a post I found helpful. It contains a beginners guide to Steemit.

Hope I was of help. I am going to follow your posts!