Slap Yourself

That Kid That's a Little Too Loud

This is going to be a little deeper than the previous chapter, so if you can't handle that, I suggest you leave while you can. I better not get any hate for this, because I will slap you upside the face if you so much as breathe one wrong word in my direction about this installment. This is personal for me, and you most likely can't understand any of it without living in my place.

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People are stupid. They are. I believe I established that in the title. But if there's one thing that annoys me most about stupid people, it's when they're ignorant. Now, not all stupid people are ignorant, but by God, all ignorant people are stupid.

I don't know how to come out and tell you guys about something so personal as what I'm preparing to type, so I'm just going to come out and say it.

My sister has a mental disability.

And no, it's not autism. Not every mental disabled person has autism. If you thought that, you can go stand in the corner with the rest of the ignorant people that I'm writing this rant about. No, it's just a learning disability. I can't recall the exact name because I don't just go around labeling my sister with her disability. I hate it when people do that. My sister is more than some disease or DNA mutation. She is a person, and one bone in her body is probably twice as sincere as your whole skeleton.

But what I'm writing this about isn't that, per say. It's when people argue with me about these things. At school, people will go off about "some kid that's, oh my gosh, so annoying." But what they don't realize is that the kid that sits in the back of the classroom, the one that can't take social cues or maybe talks too loud or is really chock full of really bad jokes or maybe thinks he's hilarious when he's not - he can't help it.

They say, "Oh, no. He can help it. He chooses to be that loud." And I just shake my head and give way to their mental incapacity because I really don't want to bring up how I know what I know. That would inevitably steer the conversation to a halting end at my sister's disability.

I'm going to simplify this, because I'm not even going to pretend to know all the nuances of these things. Part of this kid's brain doesn't register that people don't like his jokes or that he's not that popular or that he really doesn't need to be that loud. He thinks that what he is doing is the way for him to fit in.

An open letter to all the people that laugh at that one kid:

I despise you.

To all the people that purposely avoid said kid just so you don't have to talk to him,

I can't stand you.

And to all the adults that get so fed up that they start acting like those kids,

You're the worst of them all. You're supposed to be the ones that are there for them when everyone laughs, you're not supposed to laugh with them.

So, yes, I do know what I'm talking about. And, no, not all of my so-mocked "expertise" is from my sister. My sister just graduated from Concord Academy, a school devoted to educating these kids that are the outcasts of public schools. I volunteered there, I went to events, I knew some of the kids, and I would hold conversations.

So, I know what I'm talking about, and please don't try to argue with me. Or be the person that rags on the kid with the mental disability. Or be the adult that doesn't stop it. They're people. Treat them as such. I don't mean be their pity friend. Be their real friend. Because that's all they need: someone to look out for them.