Hey, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I am autistic and I am OK

Hey, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I am autistic and I am OK

Guest Poem by Luke Grayson

I am autistic

I need some extra help existing in this world

I am partially speaking so I sometimes use a device to communicate 

I am sensory seeking, so I carry fidget items with me, but my clothing must all feel the same or it will cause an overload

I am not a tragedy

I am not helpless

I am not stupid

I am an artist

I’m a writer and poet

I am an advocate and activist

I am a volunteer

I paid taxes before my *physical* health made me unable to work anymore

I can swim, I played baseball growing up, as well as soccer, track, marching band, color guard and I was on the debate team at my high school

I go to church

I go on dates — granted they’re confusing and often don’t go well, but I still do them

I can manage taking care of myself

I didn’t “regress” or take backward steps, my symptoms were overlooked because I wasn’t the picture of autistic kids that everyone was used to seeing on TV and in movies in the early 2000s 

Looking back, there were a lot of signs that were missed, from as young as 2 the old photos show a lot

I didn’t know I’m autistic until I was 29, 

me knowing now after so long, didn’t destroy anything or anyone, 

it made my life so much clearer,

It gave me a word for why I have always been the weird, different, odd one out, 

why I’ve always had difficulties with different things, 

why it’s always felt like everyone else got a handbook on how to be a human and how to act in each life scenario 

Autism isn’t preventable

It isn’t contagious 

It isn’t a death sentence 

It can’t be cured, and it shouldn’t be 

It is genetic

It is there from birth

Autism isn’t bad, 

being autistic doesn’t make you a burden

Being autistic just means your brain is a bit different from others, and that’s okay