Sic years ago The Art of Autism solicited Dear Me letters from our readers. We received this submission last month from Dana Trick. If you have a Dear Me letter please email info@artautism.com. Include a photograph and a bio. We’d like to revive this wonderful project. Here’s more about the project.
Autistic Letter
By Dana Trick
Dear me,
You’re different, you’re weird,
You’ll never be normal
And that’s okay.
Even when the world forces the mask,
You can never be anyone except yourself.
Yes, you’re still human with flaws
and while the autism may make them more negative,
You have the wonderful ability to be a
Better version of yourself without killing yourself.
If you found some people
Who accept you without the mask,
Who don’t talk with slurs and stereotypes,
Who try to understand and help you,
Then keep them by your side.
Your special interests are not embarrassing,
They are beautiful and cool
And you should never be ashamed of it.
While I do cause some problems for you,
I also save you from being plagued
By the normal people’s
Accepted cruelty, contradictions, and hypocrisy.
And most importantly,
Love yourself.
Love,
Your Autism
Dana resides in Moorpark, California. She spends too much of her time reading books (fantasy, fiction, history, poetry, comics), drawing weird things that suddenly appear in her head, writing stories and poems and listening to a strange assortments of music genres that she isn’t sure what type of music fan she is.