The Passage

By Yasemin Alptekin

Sencer is a 12 year old boy with functional autism, or, Asperger’s. People don’t always understand him. He struggles to make friends with his peers. He doesn’t get their jokes or their sarcasm. But after his teacher sets a summer assignment, everything changes. Sencer embarks on an international journey with his family…only to find himself in trouble. Along the way, what he discovers changes him, and his community, forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Apr 9, 2024
• ISBN: 9781698715230

Yasemin Alptekin

Yasemin Alptekin, Ph.D. is a Turkish-American author, translator, educator. She taught at universities in Turkey and in the U.S. She translated numerous books from English to Turkish. Her autobiographical debut book in Turkish "Gitmek Mi Zor Kalmak M?" (What Is Harder? To Leave or Stay?) was published in 2018. The Passage is her first book in English that she translated from its original Turkish. The Turkish version was published with the title Dehliz in 2021.

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Copyright 2023 Yasemin Alptekin.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by

any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or

otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-6987-1524-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6987-1523-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023915171

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or

links contained in this book may have changed since publication and

may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those

of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher,

and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Cover design: Oktay Kara

Editor: Işık Oğuzertem

Copy Editor:  Brianna Salinas

Trafford rev.  04/08/2024

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For all the dedicated teachers and counselors,

and all those people,

who make a difference in the lives of special children.

"There are billions of neurons in our brains,

but what are neurons? Just cells.

The brain has no knowledge until connections

are made between neurons.

All that we know, all that we are, comes from

the way our neurons are connected." 

Tim Berners-Lee in How to Create a Mind:

The Secret of Human Thought Revealed

by Ray Kurzweil

CONTENTS

Pronunciation Guide

A Letter from Sencer’s Teacher

A Letter from Sencer’s Mother

Chapter 22

How it all Began

Chapter 21

Tombala

Chapter 20

What Do Exams Examine?

Chapter 19

My Grandpa

Chapter 18

The Summer Break Begins

Chapter 17

My Mom

Chapter 16

My Uncle

Chapter 15

My Father and His Father

Chapter 14

Who am I?

Chapter 13

Legos, Castles

Chapter 12

Nazlı’s Summer School

Chapter 11

Getting Ready, and the Castles

Chapter 10

The Trip and Budapest

Chapter 9

Geopark

Chapter 8

Time Travel

Chapter 7

Kavurcuk

Chapter 6

Kavurcuk in the Passage with Sencer at Sumru

Chapter 5

Hospital

Chapter 4

Robotics Club

Chapter 3

Going Home

Chapter 2

Arrival

Chapter 1

Getting Started with Writing

Chapter 0

That’s How It Ended

Acknowledgements

About the Author

PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

‘A’ reads like ‘a’ in ‘father’

‘C’ reads like ‘j’ in jam

‘Ç’ reads like ‘ch’ in ‘chair’

‘E’ reads like ‘e’ in ‘let’

‘G’ reads like ‘g’ in get

‘I’ and ‘ı’ read like ‘e’ in ‘open’

‘İ’ and ‘i’ read like ‘ee’ in ‘see’

‘Ö’ reads like ‘i’ in ‘bird’ or, in French, "deux"

‘Ş’ reads like sh in ‘shine’

‘Ü’ reads like ‘u’ in ‘surreal’ or, in French, "monsieur"

Gendered Honorifics to Denote Respect

Bey (bay): Used after an adult male’s first name

Hanım (ha-nhm): Used after an adult female’s first name

Pronunciation and Meanings of Names

of the People in the Story

Lale: (LA-leh): Tulip

Melek (MEH-lek): Angel

Nazlı (NAZ-luh): Coy

Nergis (NER-gees): Daffodil

Neşe (NE-sheh): Joy

Safa (SA-FA): Contentment, innocence, pleasure

Safiye (SAW-fee-yeh): Clear, pure

Sementen (se-MEN-ten): Of the color of jasmine

Semih (se-MEEH): Generous, bountiful

Sencer (SEN-jair): Castle

Serhat (SER-hot): Border, frontier

Sermet (SER-met): Eternal, ageless

Sumru (SOOM-roo): The peak, apex

A LETTER FROM

SENCER’S TEACHER

My name is Neşe Temel and I’m a sixth-grade teacher at a school in Istanbul. My students call me Teacher Neşe. One of my students, Sencer, is the one who wrote everything you’re about to read. This book emerged as a result of a summer assignment.

Last year, on the last day of school, I gave my students an assignment. I admit I did it at the request of the parents. They would often complain that the kids hardly read or write over the summer. They spend most of their time with video games. So, I relented and assigned this piece of work.

I’ve enjoyed teaching for twenty-five years. I find it rewarding, and over the years it’s given me incredible experiences. In fact, I’d describe myself as a fairly enlightened person who’s open to new ideas. I was certain I’d grown, be it through professional development or just as a result of the years of experience all teachers eventually accumulate. But I never imagined a student assignment would strike me and, dare I say, enlighten me to the level it did. You see, Sencer’s summer assignment introduced me to the world of functional autism or, Aspies, in his words. Sencer ended up completely changing my understanding of what it means to teach and to be a teacher. And I realized: Sencer has surpassed me.

I thought I knew about autism as a syndrome. I had heard of Asperger’s. But I didn’t know much about the particulars of it. Never, in the twenty-five years I’ve served as a teacher, have I dealt with it. It seemed more like spoiled or problematic student behavior to me. I even clashed about this with our school’s guidance counselor, Melek Hanım. It was only when I read Sencer’s assignment that I realized how ignorant I was, how unfairly I had treated him, and how unique he truly is.

As teachers, from the very first week of school, we tend to group students into categories like well-behaved, troublesome, irresponsible, lazy, or hardworking. Rightly or wrongly, we then tend to evaluate these students based on the categories we place them. I still remember the names of many of my students from years ago. When I later run into them as adults, I immediately recognize the childlike expression on their faces. He was hardworking, or she was a troublemaker, I reminisce, remembering their behavior in my class.

Sencer was in the troublesome category. I’d try to keep him under control in the classroom. Every time he asked to leave, I’d think he was up to some mischief. I’d wonder, What is it this time?

At times, our guidance counselor wanted to intervene, and I admit I found Melek Hanım young and inexperienced and thought she made too many concessions to these trouble-making children who needed nothing but more discipline.

While reading his summer assignment, the sections where Sencer describes his mother, his father, family, and friends, I realized how much we, as teachers, were isolating our students from their natural environment by putting them in these categories. We were trying to shape all our students in the same mold. Well, I admit, one size doesn’t fit all!

This new experience taught me there really is no end to learning. I get chills just thinking about what happened to Sencer on his trip to Hungary, and how another child, one without Sencer’s unique way of thinking, might not have been able to handle it at all.

The world of a student, of a child, is as colorful and rich as it is complex. Sencer was not, as others had labeled him, confused. His brain simply functions in a different and special way. I now understand he wasn’t inattentive in my classes. He merely had a different way of concentrating. As you can see, this troublesome student ended up teaching me through the assignment I’d given him.

Now, as I look forward to retirement this year, I’m also retiring from this binary outlook to teaching. Judging others through our own norms and labelling them as good or bad through standardized tests is simply unfair. It requires sensitivity to recognize the diversity. From now on, I want to help guidance counselors and school psychologists in special needs education and volunteer my time to students who are Aspies. I’m ready to get to know this vibrant world and help these special students to be recognized for their strengths. It’s important to have empathy and to be more caring for students with special needs.

And, dearest Sencer, I’d like to thank you personally. You introduced me to a whole new world. I’m forever grateful you helped me see life through a new pair of eyes.

Teacher Neşe

A LETTER FROM

SENCER’S MOTHER

I’m Sencer’s mother, Sumru. I’m the first person in the family to read The Passage.

The day I walked into Sencer’s room, I wondered what he was doing, typing away at his computer with the world’s most serious expression on his face. After what happened to him in Hungary, part of me was probably just amazed to see Sencer working on his homework as if nothing was the matter. I stood there, taking him in, before saying I wanted to read what he had written. Our trip to Hungary was a turning point for me, and it was a turning point for him too. He wasn’t as grumpy as he used to be. His energy level was higher. He was focused on what he was doing, and there was a certain calmness to him. I’d never seen him that happy.

When I asked him what he was writing, he simply said it was his summer assignment. You know, the assignment the teacher gave on the last day of school. The one I didn’t want to do. Now I have to do it and explain everything to my teacher.

For years, I’ve been trying to balance my own life: My career, being a responsible mom, and a wife whose marriage is less than perfect. Sencer’s been both a rock to lean on and a challenge to triumph over. Even though I knew he had a special personality, defining it as Autism Spectrum Disorder always seemed too distant and too diseased to me. But this was my main mistake. If we, as parents, had recognized Sencer’s condition earlier, had we been able to, I’m sure our family would be in a very different place today.

For a long time, Sencer’s father couldn’t come to terms with the situation. He thought Sencer’s offbeat behavior boiled down to my parenting. The reality is, Asperger’s isn’t caused by external factors in life. A child is born with it. As a genetics researcher, I believe everyone in the family tree has contributed to the development of Sencer’s personality.

When I look back on our trip to Hungary, it’s like being two different moms. Before the trip, I was the mother of a problem child who the teachers constantly complained about. Later, I became the mother of a very special child whose brain happens to work in a different way. Until that day, though I’d been receiving professional support, I had a hard time approaching Sencer with unlimited patience and understanding. I later realized approaching him this way is the most important thing any of us can do. Our experiences together showed me that motherhood isn’t about putting up with Sencer, but about accepting him as he is. I no longer regret Sencer not being like the other kids. I consider myself lucky, and I’m excited for him. This fresh perspective feels like a new window. One where I can see how incredible life truly is.

Sumru

CHAPTER 22

How it all Began

This book is the result of a summer assignment. Teachers say these are for our own good, but every student, hardworking or lazy, sees them as a punishment. This is one of those assignments. That second sentence was too long. I was told to write in short sentences. So, it’s like you’re speaking, my teacher says. I told her then I don’t like writing and that I’d rather talk. Her response was "You have to write. This is a written assignment!"

She insisted, or maybe I should use the word ordered, that my assignment be written, so I can later go back and read what I wrote. But if I were writing for myself, I’d use my own alphabet. It’s easier for me. It was exhausting to write some of the sentences for the history exam. Why? Because the teacher insists that we use cursive. I can’t write in cursive. I mean, I write very slowly in cursive. That’s why I wrote my answers in my own alphabet. But my teacher didn’t understand anything. It’s very simple though. I’ll show you some time. In fact, I’ll show you right now, right here. Because I’ll talk about it later.

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The teacher said writing would help me in the future. Years later, I’d look back and see how much I’d grown and how different I thought in the past. It’s called growing up, going forward in life. For this assignment, I sat in front of the computer and started writing so as to not upset Teacher Neşe or my mom. Those two treat me nicely. I trust them. When I do what they ask, everything turns out all right. Believe it or not, I know what I’m going to say—I mean, write. I already know what I’ll be writing and how many pages it’s going to be. I can’t pretend I don’t know the ending. That’s why I can’t wait to tell you—I mean, write to you—about it. But I won’t reveal everything from the first page. My teacher said I don’t have to write things in the order they happened, but in such a way that’ll attract your attention. If it were up to me, I’d make a list. I’d write a sentence for each item. Here’s how I’d do it:

• My teacher gave us a summer assignment.

• She said, There are no restrictions on what you choose to write about for the assignment.

• She said, It could be something you did in the summer, or a place you visited, or an event you experienced.

• She said, It must be at least ten pages.

• She said, You can ask others help. But what you write has to be in your own words.

• She said, Don’t start writing right away, think and plan first.

I wish I could go on like this, but no, I’m not allowed to. The sentences can’t be in a list. They’re supposed to be side by side. That’s why I write like the teacher wants me to. I