The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism

Higashida now looks at the question “Would you like to be ‘normal’”? (72). Higashida states that, earlier in his life, he would have been ecstatic if given the chance to be normal. However, over time, he has come to believe that he would rather remain autistic. This is because autism is now “normal” for him (73), and any other kind of “normal” is alien and unfamiliar.

Higashida explains how, on a flight to the Japanese island of Hokkaido, he invented a short story about a character called “Autisman.” Inspired by the feeling of gravity pulling on him in the plane, Higashida describes how Autisman encounters and speaks with an “earthling” who has visited Autisman’s home planet. The earthling says that he feels weighed down and asks Autisman if he does not feel the same. Autisman man responds by saying that he feels fine but that on the earthling’s planet, he feels totally weightless.

Higashida answers the question “What’s the reason you jump?” (76). He says that emotions affect some people with autism physically, and when experiencing an emotion, some people with autism seize up “as if struck by lightning” (77). As such, jumping up and down is a way of freeing up the body and “shaking loose” this feeling of being trapped or constrained (77).