Can somebody please tell me life is better after highschool.

Please.

And mean it.

I met this boy back in kinder, when everyone was the same and you based your friends off of who had the best crayons. We became close in an instant, and he shared his pencil with me. We went to the same church, so we had CCD together every Wednesday. (This is back in my Catholic days) I thought he was so cute.

Slowly we all started “growing up” as we claimed. We moved on to mechanical pencils and books without pictures. But this boy didn’t quite change the same way we did. He fell a little behind and when it came time for middle school, his parents held him back. In seventh grade I quit going to CCD, and we lost touch. I started seeing that he wasn’t just like me.

I went on a Teen ACTS retreat this summer, and as the universe would have it, he was there. It was like time hadn’t even passed. He still remembered my name and how we had met in the kinder class. He re-introduced himself. He was worried I’d forgotten him.

But let me just say, you don’t forget a kid like Ryan.

Ryan is the same age as me, and he is autistic. He doesn’t learn in the same way we do, and things take him a lot more effort and time. Because of this he gets easily frustrated. He goes to my high school now, but he’s a grade below me (because of the year they held him back). Ryan is the most amazing guy I’ve ever met. He deals with his differences, and he’s better than anyone at brightening my day.

Do you know what he tells me? “I remember when we were all the same.” And I ask him what he means. “I remember when all of us were the same, Paige. I remember when I was just like you guys.” I never know how to reply to that. I mean he’s right. There was a time when he was like us, and now he isn’t.

It breaks and brightens my heart at the same time. I don’t really know how to explain that. But I love Ryan. I love him so much.