I was so wrong...

Today i was supposed to be at a job, that when I got there it had been over staffed. They ended up sending me to another school to be an aide for a paticular girl for the next 2 days. When I walked in It was full of big kids, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. First thing, a sweet boy named ***** offered me some hand sanitizer, I took some and said thank you, then the teacher told me that the girl I was supposed to work with was the most violent child of them all, and had actually injured people, so they put me with"hand sanitizer boy". I had already realized that these children were autistic or something similar, which was fine but I soon found out why H.S. boy had the sanitizer at his seat. One of the teachers told me that he was a "licker", he would lick (slobber) his hands and arms and wipe them on his face and hair and then on me. Now if anyone knows me, they know that I have an issue with germs and I'm sure that my eyeballs were about to pop right out of my head, when she instructed me to be very firm, wash him up, and re-direct him, which would be often. So ***** is as tall as I am and definitely stronger, getting him to stay in his seat was a challenge, he could only focus about 2 seconds at a time and then I would firmly remind him of his task(coloring, puzzles or blocks). I would have to put my hand on his to help him trace a shape, and tell him to look at what he was doing. He could only say one syllable sounds not words and his favorite was ta- ta which meant computer(his most favorite thing). All he wanted to do was just sit very close to me and smile this goofy grin,which made you love him, or he would want to get up and wonder. It was not an easy day, but at the end of it, he was responding to me, he would color consistently for about5-7 seconds while looking at what he was doing! and that small thing was so exciting, that we would have to high 5 between colors! He would hold onto my hand while I cut feathers, that he had colored for his turkey. I was more comfortable with him by the time I left. The other kids had issues of their own, but I just kept having a recurring feeling that they have whole and amazing spirits who had agreed to live on this Earth with their disabilities. And I had a new respect for the people who work with these children every day, but mostly I felt respect and love for him.... I think I am going to be able to go again tomorrow.