My name is Riley. I am a teenage girl like many others in some ways. I am addicted to my phone. I enjoy when my hair and nails are done. I love a good musical. Some days I have mood swings. I also hated school, but not for the reasons you might be thinking. I did not start talking until last summer. Typing is brand new for me. I have tried to learn to talk with my mouth my whole life. I suck at it. I can quote cartoons all day long, and I do. But don’t expect much else. What nobody could notice is that there was so much more to me than my mouth could say. So what is out there for a girl like me? Not a lot.

I went to a school that had no clue what to do with me. They thought because I can’t speak like them I was not intelligent. I was taught shapes, numbers, and colors a million times over. I was berated and told “calm body” and “safe hands”. My “safe hands” were about to strangle someone I was so frustrated. They would have deserved it.