She's Strong

It was hard for my parents to accept that she was different. I always knew she was though. She never wanted look me in the eyes, she was obsessed with the strangest things, and everything had to be done in a very certain way otherwise she would get upset. She loves bugs. She is always begging my parents for a new book on bugs, and I never knew that people could have meltdowns over dead bugs on the sidewalk until we took her to the park when she was three and cried so hard we had to leave. Until I got older I just thought everyone's siblings were like that until I realized it was just mine. Sometimes I feel invisible when my parents are around because they are always dealing with another meltdown. I like to stay quiet because my house is usually loud. I love her though. Some people ask me if I get annoyed or mad but I don't. Usually. If I do it goes away after a while because this is our life and I don’t think I would change it. She’s strong and I don’t think she knows she’s different yet but I’m sure someday someone will tell her and then I’ll have to be strong for her too.  


(From a sibling of a person with Aspergers)

Mondays

Mondays are my favorite days. I like Mondays because they begin the entire week. After Monday, the same things happen in school for the rest of the week, except Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday and Sunday, we don’t go to school because it is the weekend and instead we have free time to do things that we want to do besides school, like reading and playing outside. I only do one of those things: reading. I do not like playing outside because grass itches my legs and arms and I will probably get very dirty.

Today is a Monday, so I go to school until 3:30 and then I will go back to my home. My first teacher is a good one. I trust Mrs. Jones because she lets me sit in class quietly. Sometimes teachers ask me questions that I don’t know how to answer because I did not pay attention to the actual question they asked. I do pay attention to their words, though, but they say that is not the same thing. I keep count of the words each person says at one time, to make sure they end with an even number. I prefer an even amount of words because it completes a full idea better than an odd amount of words would. Here is what I mean: if a teacher says something and ends with an odd number, a student will have to continue where he left off and hopefully finish their thought on an even number. If no even number is ever reached, the conversation will last for a long time and maybe even the entire class period. I told Mrs. Jones this once, and she said that if I want to contribute to the conversation by adding in my own even amounts of words, then I just have to raise my hand and she will let me. Sometimes I raise my hand. Today I will probably not raise my hand because Mrs. Jones just assigned us a new reading to do and told us there will be a quiz on Friday. She said all this in sixteen words. 

(From a student with Aspergers)