We are all different…So why don’t they see it?

I’ve been doing some work with some girls with Autism Spectrum Condition recently and they have been amazingly perceptive about the reasons why they are left out, teased or ignored by their peers.  All of them have talked about not understanding why all the other girls want to be the same as each other and why one minute they are as nice as anything to them, and another time nasty and cruel.  (Two faced!) This is a poem we wrote together based on their comments.

Don’t they just have a point!

We’re all different, then why are they all trying to be the same?

We’re all different.

From the nails on our toes

To our nose, that’s how it goes

Don’t you know?

So why do you insist

On trying to persist

In being the same

Surely it’s a game?

I don’t understand

Why you call me weird

I seem to be feared

But you don’t make sense,

When you dye your hair

To look like her, and her, and her

Losing yourself

On an identical shelf.

Me, I’m different

In the wiring of my brain

But it would be insane

If we were all the same.

Autism makes sense to me

But you don’t, you see

You pretend you fit

Why won’t you admit

We’re all different

From the comfort we need

And the lives we will lead.

Let’s embrace who we are

And forget to compare.

(C) Lynn McCann 8.1.16