Being autistic is not about living in a vacuum, sucking in everything around you, living in an existence shutout from your environment.
If anything, the environment becomes more real, more painful, more evident.
Benjamin Giroux, a 10 year old student, was given a homework assignment and was asked to write a poem.
Rather than just firing off something that rhymed, he took the time to pour out his heart.
He wanted people to know what it was like to live with autism and asperger.
Benjamin Giroux, a 10-year-old boy from Plattsburgh, New York, has Asperger’s syndrome – a form of autism. He was recently given a school assignment where he was asked to write a poem titled “I Am.”
The boy was given the first two words in every sentence. From there, the rest of the poem was up to him.
“When we ask him how his day went when he gets home from school, we don’t get much more than a one-word answer,” Sonny Giroux, Benjamin’s father, told TODAY.
But while he might not be one to express much emotion, Benjamin was excited for his latest assignment. He sat at at the family kitchen table and didn’t look up until he was finished.
When he showed the poem to his parents and his teacher, they were overcome with emotion.
Read Benjamins poem below:
The full poem is below:
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 that’s okay
I try to fit in
I hope that someday I do
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 that’s okay
I try to fit in
I hope that someday I do
I am odd, I am new.
Benjamin had always felt different because he was autistic and at times, it made him stand out from the other children.
His poem, “I Am,” shows his emotions in such a special way and I think he certainly is a special youngster.
Since he wrote it, the poem has gone viral and even the National Autism Association highlighted and shared it with others.
This poem needs to be framed and or made into cards that he can pass out to others when he is in uncomfortable situations it may “break the ice” this is so perfect ! ?
And to Benjamin: You are not odd beautiful boy, you are EXACTLY what our world needs. Beautiful, pure hearts. 
Share this poem far and wide if you agree!
