friends tell MY me

My friends tell me of dreams they sleep

Of how they count their black and white sheep

When they all lie in their soft bed

Seeing visions of white and red

They slowly drift where danger can't reach

While I’m stuck here instead of a beach

My friends tell me they dream of love

How every night their met with a dove

They hop on and ride it

Heart on their sleeve

Flying to boyfriend and ex’s they leave

Holding on tight, they just glide away

While I’m stuck here feeling so grey

My friends tell me they dream of joy

Of Juliet, the girl and boy

How when they close their eyes and rest

Their slumber takes them past their stress

Yet I am here

Alone in bed

Thinking of the things that they said

Yet I am here

No sandman’s trace

While they are in their happy place

My friends tell me they dream of hope

And I lie here, trying to cope

Their mind makes pleasant things to think

And I lie here ready to sink

They think of their special someone

Then tell me that I am that one

By Elena H, Year 8

The world is perceived differently in everybody's eyes, but my life is a little different.

Everywhere I go, it’s a struggle; new names, new personalities, new things to learn. School is hard for me, but its not the lessons you understand; it's the people, the new situations. You see, I’ve found that secondary school is a lot different to primary school!

I sometimes find it hard to fit in; I have a couple of friends but I’m not the best at picking out the most reliable, good sort of friends, though I’ve been lucky here.

Ever since I was little, I felt a bit different; I didn’t get situations. I thought if I looked at what other people were doing and copied them, I could learn how to be popular.

People are complicated, they are never just feeling the one emotion, it's all these different emotions and I can't tell what they are feeling so it's really hard for me, but I’ve grown up enough to know that I don’t have to be popular – frankly it's too much effort to be cool and funny, it's so much better to just be kind.

I’m incredibly lucky, I have some good friends that accept me for who I am, amazingly autistic. For years I was asking myself the wrong question – what do I need to change about myself in order for people to like me, but now I have learned not to try to be different, but instead to be myself, because that’s how I was brilliantly and uniquely designed.

Anon.