Teacher Left In Tears After Reading Autistic Students Poem About Being “Odd”

There are billions, and I mean billions of people on this planet. People who are all different shapes, sizes, races, genders, who have different beliefs and enjoy different things. Some of us need glasses, some of us don’t, some of us have piercings and tattoos, some of us don’t… look, you know where I’m going with this. There are billions of people on this planet, and no two of us are the same. It’s beautiful.

We’re all different and special for many different reasons, and at the end of the day, that’s what makes us, well, us! However, sometimes our differences can make us feel “odd”, and like we don’t fit in with other people, and no one has captured this feeling quite as well as young Benjamin Giroux, who has autism.

It all started when Benjamin’s teacher assigned his class a piece of work, like any other ordinary school day. However, this resulted in Benjamin penning an incredibly raw and emotional poem based on his experiences of living his life with autism, which soon went massively viral across the internet and moved thousands and thousands of people all around the world to tears.

The then 10-year-old, who is from Pittsburgh, New York, was immediately inspired after his teacher asked the class of students to each write a poem about themselves. The only requirement he set them was that their poem must start with the words “I am.”

Benjamin, who is usually someone who does not express a great deal of emotion, connected with this assignment and approached this particular homework task with relish and it was something he was eager to begin working on.

You can read Benjamin’s poem below;

“I am odd, I am new, I wonder if you are too…”  

Benjamin began his poem, as he was determined to try to express what it’s really like to live with autism.

“…I hear voices in the air
I see you don’t, and that’s not fair
I want to not feel blue
I am odd, I am new
I pretend that you are too
I feel like a boy in outer space
I touch the stars and feel out of place
I worry what others might think
I cry when people laugh, it makes me shrink
I am odd, I am new
I understand now that so are you
I say I, “feel like a castaway”
I dream of a day that that’s okay
I try to fit in
I hope that someday I do
I am odd, I am new.”

After reading Benjamin’s poem, his parents were completely overcome with emotion, due to the fact that, understandably, such profound and touching words are something that is completely rare and beautiful thing to come from such a young mind.

“At first, we felt sad and hurt that he feels isolated, alone, misunderstood and odd at school,” Benjamin’s dad, Sonny, told Today.com.

“As the poem went on, we realized that he understands that he’s odd and that so is everyone else in their own way, which is what Ben wants everyone to embrace.”

After Benjamin’s dad posted the poem online, it was eventually picked up by the National Autism Association. They then shared it to their Facebook page, where it very quickly went viral and has now been shared nearly 40,000 times at the time of writing this article. Not only that, but it was often shared while accompanied the awareness hashtag of #oddtoo.

Benjamin himself has since gone on to win various awards and has watched with pride as his true masterpiece has not only been illustrated for a children’s book (which is soon to be published, so keep a lookout for it!), it has also inspired songs and has even been used in a large number of tattoo designs! However, the most rewarding part for Benjamin himself is when he receives letters from people who are just like him, who have felt truly empowered and significantly inspired by his beautiful, heartfelt words.

“Benjamin is doing alright,” said Benjamin’s dad, Sonny, during a brief update for those lovely people at Bored Panda. “He’s now in 8th grade and each day is a new day.”

When asked if his son had been working on anything else since writing his first masterpiece, Sonny responded;

“Benjamin hasn’t written much lately. The anxiety of trying to write something as good as that poem is too much for him. So he’s changed medium and now enjoys drawing and playing music.”

When considering the fact that thousands of people from all across the globe have been moved to tears and incredibly inspired by his poem, expressing their awe and gratitude daily, thanking him for giving them a beautiful insight into the mind of somebody who is on the autism spectrum and how it feels to live that way, it is completely understandable that he’s could be in no rush to try and repeat that again. Sometimes you just gotta let yourself be a kid, after all!

However, even if Benjamin chooses to never pick up that pen again in order to express how he feels, he’s pretty much already achieved more than most of us aspiring authors ever will (me 100% included!). He has, inspired people, and blessed us with the most amazing gift he possibly could.

And for that, we say thank you, Benjamin! Thank you so, so much.

Do you have someone in your life who’s living with autism? Or maybe someone who often feels a little odd and needs a bit of inspiration? Be sure to share this incredible piece of writing with them. And remember; we are ALL odd, and we’re all amazing because of it x

All images used within this article are credited to Benjamin Giroux

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