Benjamin Giroux is 10-years-old and has Aspergers which is a type of autism. His teacher asked her students to write a poem, and Benjamin wrote a poem about the condition that affects him every minute of every day.
He describes the way he’s always felt different from everybody, and alone. As a parent, this must have been very hard to read, but they came away feeling proud. His father told Huffington Post, “We were both so proud, and yet so heartbroken, that this was how he felt.”
The poem has since gone viral and for good reason — It’s an important message. The poem in its entirety is as follows:
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 outer space
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.
The poem was made available by the National Autism Association.
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