Friday, November 15, 2013

My Story Told by Someone Else



This found poem's source material is an except from Amy Sequenzia's fine blog post "More Problems with Functioning Labels."  I highly recommend reading the entire post here. Amy and I may have some different labels (as well as some similar ones), but we share the curse of  being the subject of at least one "functional ability" discussion.  I think we both hated those moments our lives. 
 
Functioning labels are
useless

F
 O
   R

the autistic
person.

We don’t wake up every morning and think:
“I am so
low-functioning,

 I feel
so sorry
for myself,

I
am
too needy

 and I don’t
really
have a chance to be
valued”.

We wake up
and face the life
 we have,
being the best
we can be.

If we have any hidden
abilities, they will remain
 hidden.

Or we might show some special talent
 but if we still look weird
or too different from our peers, we are
still pitied,
 as if we are under constant
 suffering.

And we don’t wake up
every morning and think:
 “I am so high-functioning,
 I look almost normal

. Today I will try to be normal,
 like my peers.
I want to be just like them,
 indistinguishable from them”.

 We wake up
 and face the life we have,
being the best
 we can be.

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