She stands below five feet. She has fire red hair, and a constant smile on her face. She’ll look at you, crack a joke, and leave you laughing. This was my first encounter with Jessie four years ago, and trust me, not much has changed.
I met Jessie my sophomore year of high school. She came and sat next to me and I have never felt more accepted in my entire life. She could’ve sat next to anyone, but I was the lucky one that day. She didn’t speak much, but she hugged me, laughed at her version of peek-a-boo, and most importantly, using sign language, she asked me to be her friend. I said yes and from that moment I know that this little girl would shape the rest of my high school career. She taught me about outlook, and that you should always have a positive one. She taught me to always smile, even when my day was absolutely terrible, and she taught me I could care about someone and their needs so much, besides myself. A task in which would benefit me down the road.
Meeting Jessie came at the perfect time. Over the next two years of us both being in high school, I would be exposed to so much love and so much laughter from this little girl. We would walk the halls and greet every single person that looked her way. She was basically a local celebrity. Every opportunity I could I would leave class and sneak into her lunch period and talk about life. We would walk the track when we both didn’t feel like putting effort into gym class (happened way too often). I would ask her questions to try and keep her mind working, but it always ended up with her asking me “you coming over?” Being that it was 11 a.m. and we were still in school for four more hours, my answer was always “not today, Jessie.”
Jessie emulates so much love in whatever she does. Whether it is telling you a joke that you’ve heard countless times already, or drawing you smiley faces on your paper, or my personal favorite, taking my phone and face timing people that I haven’t talked to in five years.
There is no doubt that Jessie changed me and made a better person. She is hands down the greatest experience I got out of high school and she is still continuing to be the amazing young lady that got me through those six hour days. Ask anyone.
