I proudly wave my flag in support for mental health awareness. I just found this beautiful post that exemplifies how beautiful mental impairment and brain trauma can be. How it can make others realize the ‘abnormal’ aren’t so different than ‘normal’. Gorgeous souls like this one make the bad times just as promising as the good times.
10-year-old Benjamin Giroux, a young man with Asperger’s Syndrome, was asked to write a poem with the prompt “I Am” for National Poetry Month. The fifth grade student from Cumberland Head Elementary, in New York state, penned a touching piece that went wildfire on the webs becoming a viral hit.
The poem is both heartbreaking and full of hope. The unique perspective of this young boy has struck a chord in many who weren’t aware that the struggles and feelings of someone with autism could be so very common and mirror their own sense of free falling through life. He’s seemingly bridged people from all backgrounds, with a handful of sentences that tear into the body of isolation the stigma of mental illness carries.
Asperger’s Syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests.
His letter was shared by The National Autism Association on their Facebook page and received more than 30k shares.
This is what he wrote…
I am odd, I am new
I wonder if you are too
I hear voices in the air
I see you don’t, and that’s not fair
I want to not feel blue
I am odd, I am new
I pretend that you are too
I feel like a boy in outerspace
I touch the stars and feel out of place
I worry what others might think
I cry when people laugh, it makes me shrink
I am odd, I am new
I understand now that so are you
I say I, “feel like a castaway”
I dream of a day that’s okay
I try to fit in
I hope that someday I do
I am odd, I am new.
~Benjamin Giroux
