“I Wouldn’t Trade My Special Needs for Anything”

Freedom does not only have meaning in the context of slavery. Freedom can be many other things, and I’m not saying any of those things are better or worse than the others. To me, though, freedom means being able to go out and be accepted for who you are. Since I am a special-needs person, I wasn’t always accepted everywhere I went, and sometimes I’m still not.

I have autism, ADHD, anxiety, depression, and bipolar 2 disorder.

At my old school, no one really had patience or understood me. I got bullied for things I couldn’t control. I used to rock back and forth so much that people kept looking at me weirdly. All the time, I didn’t understand things that other people normally would, so I asked a lot of questions. You can probably guess that my favorite question was the one that everyone loves, “Why?”