Technically yesterday, since I'm posting this at 1 AM.
So today I had a moment where I had to stop and just ask my self, "what the forget."
I realized how much of an starfish I could be. An autistic kid that I have to sit next to in class constantly taps my shoulder, back, and head when I put my head down, or if he feels like asking me for help, or for any other reason he decides to interact with me. He won't talk to get someone's attention, he'll go over and make their damnedest attempt to touch the other person before making a request. Anyway, after repeatedly and politely asking him to stop touching me and to leave me alone, he does it some more and I see him smile. So I respond to this by pointing that out, and then calling him Spongebob. (His trigger word, any time anyone says it, he'll moan quietly and plug both of his ears with his fingers. Say it repeatedly, and he'll wave at you and ask you to stop saying it.) After doing that, he does what he always does, and I put my head down again, as the class is just reviewing stuff I already know concretely.
Then he taps on my head again. I don't get up, I just turn to him and say, "Dude, hands to yourself. If you touch my head, if you touch me again, I'll start saying that word again." After that he frowns, and never bothered me for the rest of the period. I felt a bit of guilt then, but mostly relief, and thought of a quote that made me WTF at myself even more, "The only language these animals understand is violence."
I am quite unsure what to do about myself and this experience. I like being nice, but being a richard just gets better results sometimes.
