My amazing girlfriend has been a special education teacher for 3 years now. We've been together for about a year and a half and she has taught me so much about not just people with disabilities but just people in general. She is the model example of what it means to be a teacher, she creates meaningful relationships with her students and her students are not just the one's in her classroom. She is a teacher for everyone in this life and she spreads what she has to offer to everyone in or outside of school.
Her school is one of the top public schools in the nation. People literally move from other countries just so they can give their children the opportunities that they do here.
She had one student in particular who she had a very close connection with. Him and his family are very near and dear to her heart. For the sake of this article and to respect him and his family I am going to call him J. J suffered from a rare seizing disorder called Lennox Gastaut syndrome or LGS. This disorder caused J to seize nearly all day. Some days were better than others but as he got older it seemed like it was a matter of whether or not J could fight through his seizure to participate.
The doctors gave J a 50% chance to make it to the age of one. J was 13 years old when he passed. 13! I'm sure the doctors had no idea who they were talking about. 13 years this young man fought to be present and to be here for the people that were in his life. 13 years of being a role model to his family and friends, 8 years of being a great student and an even better classmate, and for 2 of those years my girlfriend was lucky enough to have this young man in her classroom.
The severity of J's medical situation left him vulnerable, he had to rely on the care of others for a lot of his daily needs. The selflessness that he received from the community that HE and his family had built around him was more than willing to provide such a need for him. They all understood not just that he needed this but what he was going through just to be here. Just so you had the privilege to be in his presence. He was pure, he was loving and he was a reflection of yourself. He taught you to love and care for yourself the same way you would do to him.
His relationship with my girlfriend is something that I know I won't ever totally be able to grasp. They didn't communicate with each other like we normally do, matter of fact J could hardly communicate at all, mostly through eye gaze and his expressions. What they shared runs deep between them and manifests through her incredible teaching skills.
I am convinced that J was a divine spirit; and I think we have a lot of them on this earth we just don't take notice. We don't take the time to understand their fight and what they symbolize, what they are here for. Everyone is here for some reason.
J's 13 incredibly painful and exhausting years didn't go unnoticed. He started a chain reaction that many of us won't even know he started. Everyone who had the privilege to be touched by him will go forward passing that same vulnerability and that same love and fight to everyone they come across. And what better group of people to spread that message than a group of educators and his amazing family and friends.
Thank you J, you taught me more than you'll ever know.
To the man I never knew.