I was holding the door as they carted my brother, Owen, outside with his very blue face. They closed the door and blared the sirens as they hustled him to the hospital where he later got life flighted to Columbus Children’s hospital. That was my last memory of him. He is one of the reasons why I’m choosing special education as my future career.
Owen was my younger brother and for as long as I can remember he was in a wheelchair and was blind. He had meningitis at 6 weeks old. He became blind, had epilepsy, severe developmental delay, diabetes insipidus along with other medical complications. He had a seizure that could not be controlled. This caused him to struggle to breathe and eventually cause more brain damage/brain death, this led to Owen passing away. Watching him walkout the door and out of my life was probably the hardest part of my life.
Throughout my life I have seen what people think and what people feel when they see someone with disabilities. Some have very positive reactions and some have negative reactions. The negative reactions seem to stick to me the most. I want people to look at the bright side of special education. Owen always had a smile and he loved Superman so I always called him Super O(O stands for Owen). When he passed away we used the theme Super O to raise $50,000 to buy an accessible van for a family in need. Even when Owen passed away he was still able to rally a community behind him. People with disabilities can do great things, we’ve just got to give them a shot. He impacted so many people’s lives just by having a smile, he was my Superhero. I want to be the superhero of people with disabilities. I want to impact them in a way that gives them positive influence in a world that has hatred toward them. I have seen how they have been treated and I want to change that. I want them to be excited to be with me and want them to learn to become what I know they can become, GREAT.
Owen isn’t the only reason I want to become a special education teacher. After he passed away I still wanted to be a part of the disability community. I joined a baseball league that helps with kids with disabilities and we would put on games for them. The kids had a blast and it would put smiles on their faces even if I would just run the bases with them. All it took was 2 hours out of my day to put a smile on children’s faces. I knew right then that I could have a bigger impact on these kids’ lives especially since they would get excited to play baseball with me every Sunday for 5 weeks. This encouraged me to impact their lives and what better way to do that than teach them and show them that they are worth everything.
My life experiences have led my future into being a special education teacher. I have been around people with disabilities all my life and they never fail to make me smile. My brother gathered a community around him which made an impact, and I want to make a difference too. I want to help people with disabilities become who they want to be, and show them that they all have unique talents.