Aqumarine Blue 5 Annotation

Aquamarine Blue 5 is a collection of narrative essays by college students who have been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. Editor Dawn Price Hughes also plays the role of essayist, and writes about the role AS has played in her life.

One of the first points in the book that I think can help others understand people dealing with AS is made by Darius. On page thirty three he writes, “I work part-time, because I need a sizeable portion of the week to ‘reload.’ It is not the work itself that is a problem, but having to be around other people is very tiring for me.” This point was very eye opening for me. I had thought about people with AS working part-time rather than full-time because the work environment may be over stimulating, but it hasn’t occurred to me that the people in the work environment would provide the over stimulation. I think this is important to keep in mind for employers. It is important professional level, part-time work be available for people with AS. Many employers probably don’t understand why an intelligent, otherwise high functioning person with AS needs to work on a part-time basis, but this piece of information from Darius illustrates why.

The second point in the book that struck me was Angie’s story. Her essay, on page seventy six, was so sad and hopeless that it was painful to read. It sounds like many people in her life are impatient or uncompassionate towards her as a person who deals with AS. I think if people in her life who hadn’t always offered her kindness or support were able to read her essay they would be moved to act differently. In all arenas of life it is important to be sensitive to other’s life circumstances--Angie’s story reminded me of this, which is a very important lesson in the helping field.
The last point that really struck me deals with what I understand to be a popular misconception about people dealing with mental disabilities or illness. On page eighty eight, Doug discusses being clinically depressed, primarily because of his lack of social life. He writes, “For several years, including all of my time in grad school, I was clinically depressed. My social difficulties were almost certainly both a cause and an effect of this.”

I think many people assume individuals with AS aren’t truly aware of there social singularity. Doug’s essay lets us know otherwise. It is important that people recognize the negative effects of being socially excluded so often. Doug’s essay made me think about how a little bit of social contact, with a person who is otherwise socially isolated, can go a long way.

I think Aquamarine Blue 5 is a very complete book. The essayists covered so many topics--childhood, adolescence, adulthood, academics, dating, family and the social world were just a few of the topics that the authors wrote about. The only critique I have is the one we discussed in class: do most people AS have a positive outlook on life? There was only one truly depressing story in the book (Angie’s), and while other writers shared that they had at times felt very down or depressed about living with AS, most essays focused on the obstacles they had overcome and how they had found happiness in things in their life. Does this translate over to the general population of people dealing with AS? Maybe the optimistic outlook is a good thing though. It is almost always more encouraging to think about and discuss good things rather than bad--and I think in Aquamarine Blue 5, this is true. Hopefully this book can give hope to others who are dealing with AS and help them see that life with AS can be productive and happy.