This year I’m going to listen more

by Daniel Hinnigan

There are so many things happening in 2017 – I just can’t get over it! My brother and his girlfriend are expecting their first child, a little girl, any time now. I am picking my options for GCSE (any tips would be helpful), I am starting KS4 and there are so many other minor things that I’m worried about or excited about (or even pretty scared about).

My three wishes for 2017 are:

  • To get my story published as a book
  • To be contented, not to get angry so easily and to try and not to be as sensitive as I am
  • To listen more and to be a good role model for my niece

My first wish is to get my story published as a book. I want to do this because I would like to help people who have Asperger’s syndrome and their families. Some people find it easier to read a story and it may help them, and that’s what I want to do.

I dream that my book is in shops such as WHSmith, Tesco, Asda or even Waterstones in Liverpool One.  I would love to walk past a shop and my mum saying to me, ‘Look, there is your book!’ Now that would be a great honour.

My second wish is to be contented, not to get angry so easily and to try and not to be as sensitive as I am. I want to practice doing all of these things. I always get triggered which makes me very angry. If you are wondering what I mean about triggered, it’s like an alarm button, where you just get angry and flip out. (Actually, I think anyone could have a trigger button, not just someone like me with Asperger’s syndrome). Sometimes people see you are getting worked up and just press that button for their own entertainment. I think those people are hopeless.

Last but not least, my third wish, which is to listen more and to be a good role model for my niece. I have chosen this wish because, as I’ve said, my brother and his girlfriend are expecting their first child. I would like to be a good role model for my niece because I would want her to not just look up to me, but to look up to all of her family and respect all of us.

In order to listen more, though, in school, I would like to be talked to properly and not shouted at (this isn’t by all of the teachers) and for me to be listened to as well, so it’s fair. Because, would you listen to someone if they never bothered listening to you?

So these are my three wishes for 2017! Hope your wishes come true in 2017 as well.

Daniel is 14 and lives in Liverpool

I dream that my book is in shops such as WHSmith, Tesco, Asda or even Waterstones in Liverpool One.  I would love to walk past a shop and my mum saying to me, ‘Look, there is your book!’ Now that would be a great honour.