I love when people predict the future for you when they
explain certain feelings you will have while on a trip. Before the trip, everyone always
explained how there will be a string of a couple days that will really hit you
and make you realize what you are really doing on this trip. It is a time where you really evaluate
yourself and think about the little things. We had another moderately light day at seventy miles. What we have not had in awhile is an
official arrival into the friendship visit. Word going into today was that today’s friendship visit is
one of the most fun of the summer.
To be the most fun of the summer, it would have had to top a lot of
great ones.
We rolled into the parking lot for the official arrival
where the entire Rainbows Organization was standing there waiting for us. They introduced themselves and invited
us inside for some fun and pizza.
When we got in there, they broke us up into groups. Each group was assigned to a
“classroom” where a handful of clients awaited us. This is where I met possibly two of the coolest little kids
I have ever encountered: Ashley and Kevin. Ashley suffers from autism and I am unsure from which
disability Kevin suffers. We sat
around an extremely small table and ate pizza and gave the kids a chance to
warm up to us. Kevin loved
clapping his hands together and making a motion of an alligator moving. There was a song that went with it that
he taught me and we sang it every three minutes it seemed like. It put the biggest smile on his face
every time the alligator “snapped” in the song and we clapped our hands
together really loud. The little
girl Ashley, however, is now my favorite person of all time. She had the most contagious laugh ever
and you could not help but glow with excitement and happiness when she smiled
and shoed those big teeth of hers.
She could not have been any older than four years old, and she loved
every part of life. I spent a lot
of time with her, playing with stuffed animals and dressing up as Bob the
Builder. She would not leave my
side. One of the care givers came
up to me and explained that he had never seen her warm up to a stranger like
she had to me, and that made me feel so special. Something inside of me felt so good to make this little girl
do something she is not known to do.
After awhile, they took us out to their meeting room and sang to
us. The first song was, “Oh, Happy
Days” form the movie “Sister Act II,” and then a person with Down Sydrome did a
solo of “God Bless the USA.” There were so many times during the
song where I almost teared up because this guy had one amazing singing
voice. The head lady of the
organization did start crying if that puts it in perspective for you. They turned the tables and told us that
we now had to sing songs for them.
We quickly talked and put together ideas that we would sing “Ain’t No
Mountain High Enough,” and I can honestly say that we would make an amazing
men’s chorus. After that, we had
two of our guys that are amazing singers do a duet to “Lean on Me” while the
rest of the team was behind them swaying back and forth singing along with the
chorus.
After the concert, they took us outside where there was a
canvas hanging on a piece of wood and many buckets of paint sitting next to
it. They told us to have at it and
just go crazy on the canvas with the paint. Once we were finished and there was paint everywhere, they
explained to us that they were going to auction off the painting and donate the
money raised to Push America, so that was really cool. This entire time, Ashley is right there
by my side, holding the paint so I could dip my paintbrush and reload. Again, she
never left me. There were so many
activities that they kept throwing at us.
They brought out bottles of whipped cream to put on the strawberry
shortcakes they served us, and that quickly turned into whipped cream contests
and who could hold the most in their mouth. This contest quickly turned into guys giving handfuls of
whipped cream to clients to smear in other guy’s faces. Of course, Ashley immediately went over
and held out her hand to get whipped cream. Who did she pie? Yep. Me. All over my face. She started
laughing hysterically, and the whole room busted out laughing because she made
it so contagious. Leaving his
friendship was possibly the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Kevin was definitely a crowd favorite
so he was outside shouting at everyone yelling goodbye. He would not stop saying goodbye and
followed us all the way out to the vans.
Ashley held the hand of her care-giver as she followed me out to the
van. I knelt down and she gave me
the biggest hug ever. I told her I
had a blast and she just started laughing, so I could not help but smile. I said I hope I see her next year, and
she gave me the biggest teeth-showing smile of all time. It definitely lived up to the hype of
being the best friendship visit of the summer so far, and I can thank Ashley
for every little bit of that.
The dinner that night was at an assisted living center that
does a lot for the community and people with disabilities. We learned what they had to offer to
everyone and what they do. Back to
my intro, the last three days have definitely been the time where it has hit me
what I am really doing this summer.
A combination of Joe, Frank, the singer today at Rainbows, and
especially Ashley has provided me with the realization that I should always be
happy no matter what is going on in life.
Every time I listened to what Frank had to say the other day and every
time I saw that amazing smile and heard that awesome laugh of Ashley, I told
myself that there is no way I should ever be negative towards anything. Here these people are, living every day
of their lives with disabilities, and they could care less. They are taking what God gave them and
making the most of it. After this
trip, which I do not want to end by the way, I hope I will always carry the
message I received from the last couple of days in that I should never take
anything for granted and make the most of everything that is handed to me in
life. Hopefully everyone reading
this understands and follows the same message that I took out of these days and
visits, because I honestly believe there is no better way to live your
life. I want to give a shout out
to my family who I love more than anything in the world. I would not be where I am today without
all of you. This includes all of
my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents as well. I love all of you and I cannot wait to see everyone again.
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