I taught Special Ed for many years, and (not surprisingly) dealt with many kids who had issues fitting in after failing at their "first job" in Life. 

Sarah was definitely on the spectrum,
and other students possibly were. 

 Benjamin's poem speaks volumes!

Being autistic is not about living in a vacuum, living an existence shutout from your environment. If anything, the environment becomes more real, more painful, more evident.

Benjamin Giroux, a 10 year old student, was given a homework assignment and was asked to write a poem.  The boy was given the first two words I AM in every sentence and from there, the rest of the poem was up to him.  Rather than just firing off something that rhymed, he took the time to pour out his heart.  He wanted people to know what it was like to live with autism and Asperger's.

 “When we ask him how his day went when he gets home from school, we don’t get much more than a one-word answer,” Sonny Giroux, Benjamin’s father, told TODAY.  But while he might not be one to express much emotion, Benjamin was excited for his latest assignment and didn’t look up until he was finished.  When he showed the poem to his parents and his teacher, they were overcome with emotion.

I am odd, I am new

I wonder if you are too

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 outerspace

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.