About Loneliness and Friends
Young people and not so young people, like me, can get very lonely and sad. I know what that sadness feels like when no one wants to be with you or come over to play. It makes me sad when I don’t make new friends.
It is so very important to have a good chance to meet and make new friends. My loving parents wanted that for me and gave me chances to make new friends. They made sure I wasn’t so protected from others and the outside world. They allowed me to have new friends.
No matter how old you are, even an old adult like me, it is important to have good friends and have them spend time with together.
Do you feel that a lot the time when people treat you differently, it’s because they don’t fully understand you?
I do feel people don’t fully understand anything about Down syndrome. Sometimes, I feel they don’t want to fully know or understand about Down syndrome. People need to know that we are special and unique. We might be different. Have different ways we talk in English and communicate. We know who we are and how we live our lives. We hope the wider community can see who we are.
What can people do differently?
People should take the time to listen and fully understand who I am (who we are) and the different aspects of the Down syndrome world. To know that I/we are special and so very unique in our own ways. I have made so many friends, not just with Down syndrome through places like PREP, but I have also made many friends, like when I started school.
Making Friends This Valentine’s Day
Hey Everyone! I happen to know that we are in February, so it’s time to think about Valentine’s Day. If anyone has someone that you are in love with, you can show and give them your love. It is so great to be in love with friends, family, or have a girlfriend. I used to be in love and have a girlfriend, but that isn’t the case anymore. Sometimes this makes me sad, but I know there might be someone out there to love me and I know my friends and family love me, too.
If all of you really can listen to me, then you really can hear me, and fully understand about how I was born with Down syndrome and to really know how very unique I am. But, I am not so very different from everyone else. If you don’t fully understand that, then you will not have a new friend. If you do want to have a new friend, then you really have to know how to treat me in the right way and to know that I am an adult. If all of you really can show respect and to respect the things in my life, I will always be your friend.
