My name is Aidan. I'm a sixteen year old male currently residing in Canada.
I had a normal childhood growing up. Playing games during recess, getting into fights with the school bully etc. But growing up, there was always a group of kids that my school isolated... The 'special' kids. I didn't think about much, and just had a good childhood. But when I entered into middle school, that is when things started to change. During the lunch break in my grade six year I was walking down the hall. I stopped when I heard objects being thrown, followed by shouting.
I'm a curious person by nature, perhaps too curious for my own good. So naturally I decided to take a peak, see what was going on. When I saw the inside of the room, I knew I was in the Special Needs Department. I saw one of the 'special' kids throw a temper tantrum. I could have easily walked away and pretend like I didn't see anything. But part of me just... Needed to help, needed to understand. I don't know if it was my curiosity or something else, but I decided to enter into the room.
As soon as I entered in to the room, he took one good look at me and stopped. It was the kind of look somebody gives when somebody is calm, almost at peace with himself. I took several steps towards him, and ask why he was upset. He tried to talk, but it was mostly a set series of words like 'Mr. Beans'. I later learned he had speech problems, but somehow, I knew exactly what he was trying to say. It wasn't a gut feeling, it was like I 'understood' him.
I looked around the room, and felt like he was talking about a pair of shoes, lying on the ground. I walked over to the pair of shoes and crouched down beside them. I found a spider in the shoes, which I removed from the shoes. He walked over to the shoes and took his time putting them on, but when he did placed them on, I could tell he was happy, even though he had some trouble showing it. The Staff in the Special Needs Department walked up to me and expressed their delight. They told me that he was throwing a temper tantrum for several minutes, and they were having difficultly trying to calm him down.
I was surprised, what did I do to calm him down? But the question mostly prevalent in my mind was how I understood him without knowing anything about him?
As I grew older, I had several different experiences, ranging from them calming to down to actual improvement in their lives.
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