It seems to me that there tends to be this facade that working with special needs children is all about using gentle voices and participating in simple tasks that these children enjoy, but from my experience it so much more. For anyone who has ever had the opportunity to work with a child with special needs, you become aware of how special of an opportunity it truly is. You realize that as much as you hear from others that “you’re changing their life” or “what you’re doing is great.” When it comes down to it, these children are changing our lives.

Having been blessed with a number of opportunities to work with special needs children has truly changed my life for the better. To sit down with a child and see their minds fascinated by a piece of paper or a string that they wave around in front of their faces is a strange thing for most until you try to imagine what it is that is going on in that mind of theirs. Sure, we probably will never be able to determine what it is they’re thinking or why they are so is fixated on this item, but for just a minute it lets our imagination run wild. It lets us imagine crazy, unrealistic things in a world where it’s hard to separate ourselves from reality. To sit with a child and laugh hysterically with them at something that seems so trivial in our lives, is truly a gift that not many are able to give. To see the joy or the humor in something that so many of us brush off as a typical everyday occurrence is special. For just a few minutes we can see the joy in the littlest of things, this being said we’re able to sit back and see all the joys in our lives that we are overlooking.

Now, to say that working with these special children is all rainbows and sunshine would be a huge misconception, but when is anything always rainbows and the sunshine? They have their moments when they’re not happy and you can’t seem to put your finger on what it is they’re upset about, or they don’t want to leave the house to go the grocery store, but this is when we’re truly taught the essence of patience. Sure, there’s plenty of times were taught or told to wait for something to happen or someone to get somewhere, but these are those rare times that we can’t seem to do anything but be patient. In life, we can call someone and ask where they are or simply ask someone why they’re being so grumpy, but those don’t seem to quite work in these types of situations. Sometimes you just have to sit it out and wait. And maybe it’ll even make you see that it is okay to be late, or take a breather every once and awhile because ultimately these children are able to show you that it’s okay to stop and see life in its simplest forms and it’s littlest beauties. So thank you, to those who have touched my life in your own unique way, and for teaching me how to stop and smell the roses.