My life has always been a little different from others. It isn’t something I discuss with a lot of people in detail and that probably isn’t going to change. I have a little brother named Jesus. All of his teachers can tell you that he is incredibly sweet and friendly. His jokes and positive energy are one of the reasons we laugh so much in my house. He can be annoying just like any other younger sibling, but I love him enough that I’d fight anyone or anything for him. By the way, he has cerebral palsy. For the people who may have never heard of it, cerebral palsy is a condition that causes issues with a person’s movements. It ranges in severity, with some people having only two limbs affected and others, like my brother, have all four of their limbs affected. However, this disability is not his label. In his 13 years of life, he has taught me so much and pushed my character to have empathy, a trait not so easily developed. He’s the reason I want to go into medicine. I will never be able to fit in all the lessons I learned from him in one article, but I can speak about the ones that changed my perspective of this cloudy world the most.
Never stare. Ever. Sometimes younger children don’t understand how uncomfortable it can be to have people look at them with such confusion and curiosity. I have to kick the slight irritation aside when little kids do it (the unfiltered questions is a different story). However, if you’re at the age of understanding the rudeness of staring, expect a glare from me. I get it, he’s different. That doesn’t give you the right to make him feel like a freak show by watching his odd movements as if he’s less than human. I learned to think of a person’s feelings instead of letting my eyes take control. This doesn’t just apply to people with disabilities. It applies to anyone that may be a little different than me.
Don’t make assumptions from a person’s appearance. Jesus may look fragile, but that child isn’t as fragile as my over-sensitive self. He has overcome so many challenges that may have completely broken others. He has pushed through surgeries and epilepsy. He has pushed through adjustments from moving from Missouri to New Jersey. He has pushed through bullying and verbally abusive teachers. After all that, his signature goofy smile is still there. People with disabilities can be some of the strongest people you’ll know because they go through so many challenges that little difficulties are nothing to them. This idea molded my mindset to not automatically guess peoples’ ability from their looks. I don’t know their struggles or character enough to pity them.
Treat everyone equally. Neither Jesus nor my family ever think less of him because of his disabilities. Especially me. I don’t think he should be treated with latex gloves when he’s stronger than he looks. He doesn’t need to be babied for everything. One aspect of Jesus that I admire is his independence. Sometimes he’s lazy to do things, but he is capable and hates it when people want to do everything for him. I’ll see him struggling to open a lollipop and ask him if he needs helps. “NO, I GOT IT!”, he bellows as my hand was about to reach the wrapper. This doesn’t mean I’ll neglect him when he needs help. I learned that I need to respect when someone doesn’t want help because I know that if someone was forcibly helping me with something like flossing, I’d be pretty angry, too.
Don’t take yourself so seriously. Some people expect my brother to be depressed from missing out on experiences. Thing is, he’s probably one of the happiest people you’ll come across. It’s not that he doesn’t know he’s considered disabled. He just doesn’t let it preoccupy his mind. The focuses that swirl around in his brain are simple and innocent. I have never met someone that gets so excited by a new movie coming out or a new episode of Spiderman. Whenever I get wrapped up in my fears of college or stress, he reminds me of the importance of staying young at heart. He’ll ask me to play “Super Smash Bros” with him and my other brother, which leads to unreasonable competition and laughter. We’ll have karate move competitions where weird screeches are a must. I’ll feature him in my Snapchat, which Jesus loves because of the filters. You need to be goofy and "childish" sometimes because simple youth is where happiness exists. This is the ultimate lesson. Life is miserable if you don’t have a little bit of silliness to balance out the negatives —and no one could have ingrained this in me besides my little brother.
