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.