There's this guy at my station in the morning who stands with his mum and waits for the train. He has Down Sydrome and he carries his school books in one of those backpacks that have the expandable handle that comes out the top so that he can roll his bag along like a suitcase.
He talks to his mum and she's dressed smartly- a 2 piece suit, tidy short blonde hair and a crisp white shirt.
He's in year 12- which you know because he's wearing the ubiquitous year 12 jersey- blue and white striped, he turns around and you can see what special word he's chosen to put on the back. In my year, most people put their nick names, or something a little more trendy and cryptic like "short black" or "flat white" (references to their height and hair colour/lack of heaving bosom and skin colour).
Instead, he has just put his name: "William".
As the train approaches, William carefully lifts his bag and gets on the train. He moves in a slightly off kilter way and gets the usual stares which generally reflect mild confusion or genuine sympathy. He chooses to stand near the doors and starts talking and motioning to another high school boy who doesn't appear to know him.
He points to this other guy's earphones and then points to his own ears. The other guys shrugs and smiles and offers him an earphone.
William grasps the earphone and puts it in his own ear. He grins and puts his face close to the Ipod screen, reading the name of the song he's listening to.
The other guy says something about needing to get off at the next stop to get to school and William nods and grins. He plucks the earphone out of his ear and tries to carefully slot it back into the other guy's ear. He misses a couple of times, squashing the earphone into the other guy's sideburns.
The other guy laughs and waits until he finally gets it in. William beams.
The other guy waves and saunters off the train.
I watched all this and seriously couldn't stop smiling. It made my morning.
He talks to his mum and she's dressed smartly- a 2 piece suit, tidy short blonde hair and a crisp white shirt.
He's in year 12- which you know because he's wearing the ubiquitous year 12 jersey- blue and white striped, he turns around and you can see what special word he's chosen to put on the back. In my year, most people put their nick names, or something a little more trendy and cryptic like "short black" or "flat white" (references to their height and hair colour/lack of heaving bosom and skin colour).
Instead, he has just put his name: "William".
As the train approaches, William carefully lifts his bag and gets on the train. He moves in a slightly off kilter way and gets the usual stares which generally reflect mild confusion or genuine sympathy. He chooses to stand near the doors and starts talking and motioning to another high school boy who doesn't appear to know him.
He points to this other guy's earphones and then points to his own ears. The other guys shrugs and smiles and offers him an earphone.
William grasps the earphone and puts it in his own ear. He grins and puts his face close to the Ipod screen, reading the name of the song he's listening to.
The other guy says something about needing to get off at the next stop to get to school and William nods and grins. He plucks the earphone out of his ear and tries to carefully slot it back into the other guy's ear. He misses a couple of times, squashing the earphone into the other guy's sideburns.
The other guy laughs and waits until he finally gets it in. William beams.
The other guy waves and saunters off the train.
I watched all this and seriously couldn't stop smiling. It made my morning.
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