I hope you enjoy my story!
What I Learned from Goodbye
We’re all storytellers. It’s how many of us make sense of our world and justify our behavior or circumstances. As I approached my senior year of high school my story was, “Inspiration happens all around me but never happens to me.” My friends were talking about what they wanted to do with their lives. They had it all figured out and here I was wondering what I wanted to do. I’ve always gotten decent grades, enjoyed school, and followed the path leading to college, but I never knew exactly why because I couldn’t choose that one thing I was passionate enough about to invest my time in learning. The school counselors all said, “It’s okay – don’t worry.” But I couldn’t help feeling that I was the only one who had no idea. I had no idea my life would change with a four-year old little boy.
Summer had begun and I had once again volunteered for Camp Prov. It was my fourth year working at the camp for children with disabilities and their siblings. The children’s disabilities ranged from minor speech impediments, to autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. I’ve always loved children and been around them all my life, so that wasn’t new to me and I liked the feeling that I was succeeding in helping those kids. The camp operates by pairing each camper with a teenage volunteer “buddy”. Helping these kids gave me a sense of belonging, like I was needed and was doing my job well; this was increased immensely the day I met little Braeden.
Braeden is autistic and doesn’t speak with words but he definitely has his own language. Everyone knew Braeden with his crooked smile and big brown eyes. He would walk around the entire camp every morning, greeting everyone he saw with a pat on the back or one of his heart-warming smiles. I felt so lucky to be his buddy and wanted to learn as much about him and his autism as I could before I went to camp the next day. I learned that autistic children develop slower in social and communication skills, which is why Braeden didn’t speak with words. However, I also knew that sometimes children have breakthroughs at camp because of the unique environment and I wanted that for Braeden. I knew it was a long shot that he would learn a word or two in one week, but I was bound to try because I was bonding with him so quickly and wanted to help him in any way that I could.
The last day of camp arrived and I couldn’t wait to see Braeden that morning. I told myself not to be discouraged that it was the last day but to make the best of it. He finally arrived and we went through our routine of changing into the Camp Prov shirt, looking through our finger glasses at each other, and waving goodbye to Mom. But this morning as his mom hugged him goodbye and turned around to walk to her car, Braeden whispered, “Bye Mom.” Before I knew it she turned around and with tears streaming down her cheeks, she picked him up in her arms and hugged him tightly.
In that fleeting moment of inspiration and success, I was deeply touched and realized my personal story had a new chapter. Braeden had overcome the hardest obstacle he was facing with my help. We had inspired each other. By saying goodbye, that four-year-old boy with the crooked smile and big brown eyes taught me that I could make a difference. I definitely will continue volunteering and learning about autism because I want this to be a part of my life. I want to champion for autistic children so more will improve, like Braeden, and grow into something more than their diagnosis. In school I plan to study child development, psychology, and special education to possibly someday become an occupational or behavioral child therapist.
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