I’m kicking myself because I can’t find video of this anywhere on the internet.

Friday I lucked out with my substitute teach assignment! Gym Teacher! I had three classes in the morning, a long lunch break and then the talent show was all afternoon! I have to tell you about an autistic boy named A.J.

A.J. came on stage, picked up the microphone, waited for his track to begin and then belted out an awesome version of Alicia Keys’ single “No One”. A couple of times he seemed so excited that he jumped as he sang!

At the end of the show there was a delay in tallying the votes, so they asked A.J. to come out and sing his song again. There were some technical glitches that almost stopped the encore, but when the track came on, the entire student body went NUTS! Everybody was on their feet clapping as an autistic boy – who can’t even carry on a complete sentence in conversation – sang with all his heart…”No one, no one, no one…can get in the way of what I’m feeling!” He brought the house down; and almost brought tears to my eyes.

How do you unite an entire middle school student body and faculty? It takes a special kid.