Better Than A Disney Ending

Over the last few months I had the opportunity to “friend” many of my elementary school classmates on Facebook.  To be honest, I had mixed feelings about this.  I’ve been in touch regularly with two trusted classmates and wasn’t sure I needed more than that.  But to be nice, I accepted their friend requests.  I thought it would be rude not to since they could see we were mutual friends with several people from high school.

The mixed feelings stem from the way I was treated by many of my classmates in elementary school.  The way they interacted with me (and I with them) was the reason I was referred for evaluation in the first place.  The girls in the class and their mothers were so cruel.  I wasn’t stupid and noticed that I never went to any birthday parties.  When I got to high school and realized that there was a much bigger world out there, one where I could do well just by being genuinely nice, I ditched them and never looked back.

I realized that being Facebook friends with them meant I would have to overhear their conversations, and that many of them hadn’t changed one bit, sadly.  I didn’t need to do that to myself.  So I unfriended them and learned to ignore the “WTF?!” comments I got.

As a child with AS, you dream of growing up and going somewhere far far away from these classmates who torment you.  I did just that; I went to college on the other side of the country and stayed here and now I live as far as possible from the kids who made me so miserable.  When someone bugged me about a class reunion I was able to say that unfortunately I lived too far away and wouldn’t be able to make it.

There’s hope, kids.  You make your own choices.