I am not loud, I am just Mexican.

Last year I was sitting at an Atlanta airport gate waiting for my flight back to Vancouver and noticed a beautiful little girl no more than five, who was roaming around. She was taking things out of other people's bags and sticking her head in front of other people's computer monitors. A woman had her lunch on her lap and she walked right up and took a fry and when her mother tried to stop her she had one of those epic tantrums with lots of screaming and stomping.

As a develomental peadiatrician all of my "spidey senses" were on alert. I am thinking, mmmhhhh, there is something different about this little girl. She does not look unsual but her behaviour is unusal. I could also tell most of the other people sitting at the gate were starting to get annoyed and having this I-cannot-believe-how-MISbehaved-she-is! look on their faces and WHY don't her parents do something about it? attitude. Once her mother had her a little more settled and the screaming had stopped she takes her jacket off and ................. THERE IT WAS!!! THE reason for her behaviour. She had a T-shirt on that said: "I am not rude. I have autism".

Now, I could tell EVERYONE at the gate was having an "aha" moment and the group's attitude changed. The lady with the lunch was now OFFERING her fries, the man witth the computer was now TURNING the screen for her to see and when she had another melt down people's looks were ones of "I get it". They even offered to help.

I had another similar experience at the Ottawa airport (I spend a lot of time at airports) where a good looking young man would loudly grunt and shout "cunt, pussy, bitches" repeatedly. I sat there and knew - Tourette syndrome. But was still shocked the first time I heard it.

It continued as he got on the plane. The anxiety was rising for all to think that we might have five hours of this on the plane and it was getting worse, he was getting louder and it was happening more often. If  this was distressing to the passengers imagine how this very nice young man felt at his inability to control his behaviour! By some weird luck, his seat was next to this lovely couple with a little baby and we could all tell that was not a good arrangement. Everyone in the back four rows, me included, had to play musical chairs and finally he ended up seated in the back row with two other very mature, very kind young men. Before takeoff the pilot made an announcement overhead that informed everyone the passenger had Tourette syndrome and his outbursts were involuntary. Things went well, no problems, no complaints, even though his outburst continued for the whole flight except when he fell asleep.

Both of these experiences have got me thinking, we all have our issues don't we? It's just that ours may not be outwardly visible and obvious. I wonder, what would my T-shirt say? "I am not loud, I am just Mexican" (sorry about the stereotype! but in my case it is true). Or "I get really cranky without Diet Coke" (no, I am not a paid advertisement - this also happens to be true). Or to address my self-image insecurity: "I have a very big behind but you should know I am pretty fit and I run almost every day." Or maybe even: "I have a hard time saying no". Hang on, nope, forget that last one, NOT a good idea. It might lead to some inappropriate moments and requests.

Maybe, before every flight the pilot would have to announce: "Warning to all: the lady sitting in 13C is very chatty and she always wants to be right" or much likely (and accurate): "Be aware on 20A, the woman sitting next to you tends to make EXCEEDINGLY strong emotional attachments that can at times seem very intrusive and may even border on psychotic. Good luck to you".

Evidence to this last one: last year I sent a very expensive Canucks jersey to this die-hard Bruins fan that I talked to for like 15 minutes on a bus in Boston (right before the Stanley cup play-offs against the Bruins I might add!) not only because I thought he should support the better team :))) but also because he very kindly allowed me to use his bus pass so I could get into South Station to use the bathroom while he looked after my luggagge. I know, crazy right? So, yeah, this last description works.