“I see you” is the greeting used in Best Buddies and it is a saying that has changed my life. Best Buddies is a club where students with intellectual disabilities are paired together with other students so that they can build a friendship together and support one another. I will never forget my first buddy, Christian. I was nervous, at first, about being in this club because I was not really sure what it would be like or how I would interact with my buddy. I ended up having a blast, however, and Christian changed my life and my thinking. He was always so full of joy and excitement when I went to see him. This joy was often times contagious and I ended up being happy and smiling when I was with him. Christian loved laughing and having fun and he always made everyone around him laugh. Christian and all the other buddies had a great way of making me feel so special and important when I went to visit them.
When I first joined Best Buddies I didn’t really know what was meant by the saying “I see you” but its meaning became very clear to me after a while. It means that when working with people it is important that you see them for who they are and not what disabilities they may have. I realized that Christian and the other buddies are people and they should not be treated any differently or deprived of opportunities because of their disability.
As I read the play The Boys Next Door I was reminded of the people I met while in Best Buddies and the challenges and joys that came from working with them. Just as in the play people with disabilities are often taken advantage of. This is especially sad because they are so trusting and would never think that anyone was out to harm them.
Just as we saw Jack struggle with communicating with some of the other characters in the play it is often times hard to understand what they mean by some things or understand what they are doing. It takes a lot of patience to work with people with disabilities but it is incredibly rewarding.
When I went on the AFI tour and got to see the clients there doing jobs and increasing their abilities I was able to see better how functional disabled people can be. A lot of times society puts up limits on what we think they can and can’t do and often people aren’t able to reach their full potential because no one encourages them or allows them to practice. As we saw in the play, however, people with disabilities are capable of maintaining jobs and supporting themselves with the help of an overseer. The AFI works with their clients to increase their abilities and give them opportunities to interact in society.
Some of the biggest obstacles people with disabilities face are those set by society. Out of ignorance many people fear them and put them all in the same category. Society often assumes that they are all the same and that they can’t do anything because of their disability. Many try to avoid any contact or work with them because they are different than them. If people would take time to learn about disabilities and the wide range of its effects I think they would be less afraid and more eager to get to know the person behind the disability.
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So right! The mentally challenged need us to
ReplyDeleteencourage them to accomplish as much they can.
It sounds like the buddies program was really great. I also worked with children with severe disabilities. Some of the children were mentally disabled and others were physical disabled.
ReplyDeleteI began to get emotionally attached to the children. The smile that a child would give you would be so touching. There was sadness when one of the children would be having a physical challenged day.
I will never forget the experience I shared with them.