Fourteen-year-old Joshua
Yuchasz is a high school freshman in Milford, Mich. He plays in
his school’s concert
band and on its football team. In addition to Godzilla, Yuchasz likes
other reptiles, including Bubba, his pet red-tailed boa constrictor.
The following essay comes from This I Believe, a national media project
engaging people in writing, sharing and discussing the core values
and beliefs that guide their daily lives.
What if everyone in the world
was exactly alike? What if everyone talked the same, acted the same,
listened to the same music and watched the same TV programs? The
world would be extremely dull!
I believe it’s
important to accept people for who they are.
Differences are important and they should be respected. For example,
many important people throughout history were considered different,
such as Thomas Edison, Albert Ein-stein, Harriet Tubman, Peter
Tchaikovsky and Abraham Lincoln. They did great things, but some
people thought they were weird because they had strong feelings
about something. I can relate to these people because I’ve
been in that situation before, many times.
It all started in elementary
school when I realized that I wasn’t
like everyone else. My mom says that I have a tendency of obsessing
on certain subjects. Unfortunately, these subjects don’t interest
other kids my age and they really don’t interest my teachers.
In fact, my kindergarten teacher said she would scream if I mentioned
snakes or lizards one more time while she was teaching the days of
the week. I would get in trouble for not paying attention—and
the teasing began.
In third grade, my teacher
informed me that I have Asperger’s
Syndrome. I said, “So what? Do you know that Godzilla’s
suit weighs 188 pounds?”
Later, I asked my mom, “What is Asperger’s Syndrome?
Am I gonna die?” She said that it’s like having blinders
on, and that I can only see one thing at a time, and that it’s
hard to focus on other things. Like I would tell anyone and everyone
that would listen about Godzilla because my big obsession was, and
still is, Godzilla — not a real popular subject with the middle
school crowd, and so the teasing continues.
I might be different
because I have different interests than other teenagers, but that
doesn’t give them the right to be so mean
and cruel to me. Kids at Oak Valley make fun of me for liking what
I like the most.
People also make fun
of me for knowing facts about volcanoes, whales, tornadoes and
many other scientific things. My mom says that she has been able
to answer many questions on Jeopardy! just by listening to what
I have to say, but I’ve even been ridiculed for being
smart.
Maybe someday I’ll become a gene engineer and create the real
Godzilla. I can dream, can’t I?
Sometimes I wish I were
like everyone else, but not really. Because I believe people should
be respected for being different because we’re all different
in our own ways. This I believe. ![]()
We’re All Different in Our Own Ways,” ©2006 Joshua
Yuchasz. Reprinted by arrangement with This I Believe, Inc. To read
and hear other essays, and to submit your own, visit www.thisibelieve.org
