Autism and me
My life isn’t quite as normal as I would like it to be. But in a good way. You see my brother, Connor, is autistic. He doesn’t act like others or play like others and he sure as heck doesn’t think like them.
One time last year, I remember it well, he wanted a toy in a certain colour. He has to have it from that shop though; as he knows by the position of the price tag! So my parents went and bought him the toy and hid it. Connor was so excited for his birthday he forgot about it, like he had amnesia, and carried on his life at school. Then, on his birthday, he opened the presents and his face dropped.
my dad asked s is video games. Mario, Sonic and BMX games to Sega and Gameboy he plays them all. He loves it, and spends all his time on the games.
Autism is a funny thing, people with it don’t like to socialise or speak, and don’t understandwhat they are doing wrong, when others know that it is wrong. t know, not even a police officer trying to help. People look in disgust at Connor when we found him, and he got angry as he thought we had abandoned him.
In the mornings he takes ages to wake up and half an hour after that to get dressed. So I have to help my little sister get ready and get her breakfast. He doesn’t realise. But he likes to stay in bed, if he gets woken before the usual time, he will run off down the street. He did that once, ran off down to the pub near our house and stayed there for an hour. The barman didn’t realise he was autistic and bellowed at him to get out, so Connor locked himself in the toilets. He was late for school that day.
Not many people know about autism, but they need to know. It affects so many people and changes so many lives, but really the people with autism are not different. In fact they are generally smarter, Sir Isaac Newton was autistic and he discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head, and he made a theory from that.
So although many people criticise Connor and my parents but every time I see his face light up in delight, or see him run towards me I realise that no matter what they say, he’s my brother and he doesn’t need to change for anyone.
Written by Lewis Pope aged 12
Thank you so much Lewis for sharing this with us and for your family for letting us put this on our website to share with other parents.
