(This entry is
long and quite picture-less, but if you've got a
minute, it has some good friends with good lessons and examples
everyone should know about.)
Yesterday, I came home from
Youth Conference. This year's was
completely different from years past,
mostly that it was a lot
less church-centered. I mean, it still had the key points of Youth Conference...a group of
friends staying up late at a
host-home (mine, this time!), silly yet surprisingly amazing
games Thursday night, waking up far too early every morning, a dance (this year's was the BEST yet, and was at an awesome
fancy pavilion place), a really
beautiful testimony meeting, and a lot of delicious food (catered for FREE by Subway's for a lunch and
Olive Garden for a dinner, as amazing as that is!). But besides those
crucial, awesome bits, it was completely different.
Our
theme for the year was "Be Thou an Example of the Believers", and the focus was volunteering at
Special Olympics in Normal, Illinois. It was a bit Olympics themed, what with "
Raise your Torches High" doubling as the Olympic torch symbol, but
primarily seemed to be focused on service.
I have to admit, I was a bit
disappointed that we didn't get the
spiritual classes and stuff. Those parts that lots of kids
really don't love, sleep through, and mark as
low on the list of favorite activities...those are really my
favorite. I'm one who vigorously
attends the school of thought "I can hang out with my friends
whenever I want; I want to be spiritually enlightened!" and while I really need and wanted the kind of spiritual
recharging I got last year, I learned a lot of things this year about
other people and about
myself that I really don't think I ever could have learned
any other way.
In case you didn't know, Special Olympics is a
wonderful organization for mentally
handicapped people of all ages and circumstances to get
together at find a renewed sense of self through sports and friendly competition. As
sister Lopez said in her talk, those who go to help at the Special Olympics tend to go for
service, to be good to their fellow man, and to experience "
As much as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me". We expect to go and serve as if
serving the Lord. But what those who go to
Special Olympics find is that
we're the ones being
taught.
We're the ones being served.
We're the ones with the
unreached capacities for faith, love, respect, hard-work, and
individual worth. And as we go to Special Olympics, it is like we're being
served by the Lord.
Through my time serving, I
met a lot of people who have touched my lives with their
stories, their kindness, and their
lessons. And while many of the people we met were funny, flirty, and encompass
many great stories from the flirtatious
Harold to the too-honest
Michael, every one's favorite stories are ones of
heart.
Like
Jeanne and
Craig.
Jeanne is a blind girl with two prosthetic legs and an additional handicap who I got to
escort. I brought her to her seat and her lane for her race (a 10-yard walk), and she was just
so excited. I didn't
realize she was blind
or had prosthetic legs until later when someone
told me, though I guess I
should have realized because they don't
let athletes wear sunglasses unless they're blind or
need prescription sunglasses. And prosthetic legs are kind of
hard to hide. But anyway, Jeanne had special racing
accommodations for her walk, so we (all the volunteers in the
tent) had to hold up a rope for her and she held onto a pipe to keep her walking
straight along it. As she went by, we had to let go then
grab hold again. Jeanne, despite everything, got
first place through placing total
trust in her helpers, the line, and what she knew she
could do.
Craig was a
different case. He was in a 50-yard run, and
very shy. But he was excited to run and excited to
race, even though everyone around him was a bit
distracting and more fit. Craig didn't place very high at all (he only got
fifth out of seven), but when he finished and I gave him his high-five, he was just
glowing. So happy to have done his
best, so pleased he was able to run so fast. Craig and Jeanne didn't
care they had disabilities, Craig didn't care he
lost, and Jeanne didn't care she needed help
above that of the other racers.
Later on in the Youth Conference, I spotted Craig and Jeanne in
different occasions, walking with their
families or teams. I said "hi" to them, and just to see how much the
simple "hi" meant to them really made my day. Jeanne was in the middle of a
conversation with her sister, and she has become one of the most-popular stories for the Youth to
retell. I mean, she basically
lives an object-lesson life, and literally races the
Iron Rod. And yet, she seemed
almost as happy to interrupt her
sister and say "hi" back as she did when she
got her gold. Craig, who had been so shy and almost
unwilling to talk to me, was just so pleased when I said "hi"
spotting him off the track. He smiled his rare smile and answered with
words that he never likes to use, because the
simple act meant so much.
Of course, I didn't just learn from the
athletes I met. Early Saturday morning, Jenny, Sarah, Jenessa and I met one of the
volunteers who was willing to talk with us.
David is one of the sweetest, funniest, most
adorable little 13 year old I've randomly met.
Plus, he looks like an older, cooler version of
the kid from Pursuit of Happyness, so that's just awesome. Pretty soon, we realized David was
Mormon, and so we hung out with him literally all day.
Originally, we probably were just hanging out with him
because he was Mormon. But it didn't take long to figure out that David is
seriously awesome.
All day, he told us
stories about his hilarious brothers, sister, and
cousins. He told us about his
house in Chicago, his family, his life...of course, we talked too, but David was just so funny and his stories were so
incredible! We would tease him, try to get him to
smile when helping roll the Shot-Put balls back was
boring, and we would take him
exploring with us. He got to be great
friends with us right back, and caught on probably
too fast that I'm easy to make fun of.
Later in the
morning, David showed us his sister and cousin, and we met his
brother (who actually got us some food when we were
hungry). David looks
just like his siblings, but his
cousin is a white girl, so Jenny and I just assumed she was
adopted. His brother is almost as funny as he is, and when I had to
separate to meet my group, Jenny stuck with David and got to meet his
twin brother over at Soccer.
As David's whole family was
volunteering at Special Olympics, we figured David's twin was one of the many
volunteers at soccer. But actually, David's twin brother, born 40 minutes after him, has
downs syndrome. Jenny said he is just about the
sweetest boy she's ever met, and she really wanted to meet their
parents. She did, and much to her surprise, David's parents are
both white. They have four children,
all adopted, and except for David and his twin, all from
different families. Although I never
personally met his parents, knowing just how amazing David is from the five hours we spent with him, I can only
imagine what people his parents must be. The entire family is an
inspiration to me, and neither Jenny nor I will ever forget David, even if we don't
ever see him again. Who knows, maybe a stake dance with the
Chicago stake once he's 14...!
But the most
influential person I met all weekend long, even though it was only for one little event was definitely
Jim. Jim is
78...
78!!...with some kind of mental
handicap- though he's very high functioning; I never noticed
anything out of the ordinary except his height (he's even shorter than
I am!) and very uncommon
dedication. And Jim, this
little old man to the max, placed
second in the Special Olympics level in
Shot-Put, which he started playing
this year.
Jim is such a
kind old man, and it was great to talk to him. He told me how
often he practices, how he loves playing
Bocce Ball and has been using them to help
practice Shot-Put and work out. He told me about his
girlfriend, his friends and teammates and their
sports at the day's events, and mostly loved to talk about how much he loves his
sports. He also told me about an amazing
camp he goes to for 10 days, with a huge lake, nice dorm-like cabins, a swimming pool, and even an outdoor
movie theatre. I was super curious about this, and he seemed obviously put-off from saying it was for the
handicapped. It's obvious that Jim
does not think of himself as handicapped. He doesn't even think of himself as
elderly! He thinks of himself as first a
person with great aptitude and second as an
athlete with great talent.
And yet, Jim isn't
cruel, harsh, or a
sore-loser. He was hoping to get first and definitely took the game more
seriously than anyone else in his round, but he was so
gracious and just happy to be playing with good competition. He's not
bitter at all. And he's
funny, with humor that's
very appropriate and downright witty. As much as Jim was good company,
mostly, he was an amazing example.
I learned so much from Jim about my
own self. If a 78 year-old handicapped man can do so
much with himself, why can't I
focus on my own goals? He helped me
realize that I, too, have great self worth and
divine nature. I'm a daughter of God with even LESS hurdles than Jim has, I can accomplish just as
much as I work for. Jim is my inspiration, and my example.
I didn't get what I usually
expect from Youth Conference...but actually, I think I got
more. I got examples that I'm going to carry with me my
whole life, with whatever troubles I have. My life sometimes seems so
hard, and my trials seem so aggravating, but I have it so
easy. Too easy. I was born
healthy into a family with good
circumstances that I've lived with my whole life without having any sort of
serious financial, physical, mental, or spiritual
burdens. If people like Jeanne, Craig, David, Jim, and the thousands and
thousands of other athletes and volunteers at Special Olympics can be so down-right
amazing with trials that I can't even
comprehend, I need to learn to do just as well. This weekend, I've found my
examples. Now, it's my turn to
be one.
"Freckles" can be found by Natasha Bedingfield
July, but better if you happen to be Canadian! And if you don't happen to be Canadian, today is a great day to wish you were, perhaps by tacking "eh" onto the end of applicable phrases, listening to Barenaked Ladies (the band, please), or spending some of your recession-proof money at only-in-canada.com! Now, the other just-as-lovely holidays happen to be CREATIVE ICE CREAM FLAVOR DAY (I know. It's like...meant for me or something), which sounds like a lovely reason to crack out your Ben + Jerry's recipe book every household should have even if they don't use it (it's hilarious just to read by itself!) and International Joke Day! I would give you some examples of how to celebrate that, but it should be amazingly self-explanatory.
beautiful he or she is. It helps if you have a reflective shirt.
