1 September 2011
A Truly Special Event Everyone meets that figurative someone at some point in their life, that someone that changes everything. They affect the way you think and the choices you make, sometimes they even affect something as miniscule as the color that your fingernails are painted. I’m not talking about a boyfriend or a lover. My someone gives more love than I imagine a boyfriend or lover ever could. The way my someone looks at me makes my heart melt. The things my someone says are some of the most profound things you will ever hear. Just having that someone in your presence gives you an immense sense of security and incredibly unique comfort yet, they are terribly misunderstood. They hold you to a higher standard without demanding it. They have changed my life forever and they now inspire my self-improvement and fuel my aspirations. I don’t have one someone. I have nine. They are special needs children. Just walking into the room was terrifyingly overwhelming. The first thing I experienced in the room was the sharp, irritating pain that provoked a stream of obscenities to be released from my mouth. I had stepped on a letter; one of those ones that you stick on your fridge and spell out notes to your mom. As I looked up from the floor, which seemed to have someone’s entire breakfast spilled on it and then walked all over, I saw nine children of varying ages and sizes looking at me. I said hello but they obviously had no desire to talk to me seeing as they just went about their business. As I walked around the corner in the biggest classroom I had ever been in I found a woman who was wearing jeans and a Bixby tshirt that had something crusty on the front. She had a small, slobbery child in tow. As it turns out this is the teacher I’m supposed to be interning under. I began talking to the teacher, Dinah Hill, and she explained her classroom and her students were a part of a very special program. She was a special needs teacher