Ever since I was a little girl, I have had a heart for being friends with people with disabilities. One of my best, lifelong friends has cerebral palsy and one of my first friends in kindergarten was a classmate who had autism. In high school, I ate lunch with my friends from the special education class every day. People have told me it takes a special person to be friends with someone with a disability, that not everyone can do it or that it is something to be proud of. I don’t want to be regarded as some kind of hero for being friends with someone with a disability. People wouldn’t say I was a special person for being friends with someone without a disability, so why should I be a good person now? Sometimes it’s true that being friends with someone with a disability takes a special person. But it shouldn’t be.
Being friends with someone with a disability isn’t something that should be different or special. It should be the same as being friends with anyone else. Because in so many ways, it is the same. People with disabilities are just like everyone else.
Let me tell you about my best friend, Hannah. Hannah is junior in high school. She is always up for long conversations on the phone, she loves listening to music and dancing, and she has a huge heart for other people. She is a huge social butterfly. She can carry on a conversation with a stranger better than anyone I know. One of my absolute favorite memories with Hannah was getting dressed up and singing at the top of my lungs with my best friend at a Taylor Swift concert. She is one of the sweetest souls I have ever met. Hannah has cerebral palsy, but she isn’t different from anyone else. Her disability doesn’t make her a different person. She wants the same things out of life as anyone else.
It breaks my heart that people would overlook someone like Hannah because she has a disability, that people would overlook her as a friend because they think that she is different.
Maybe in that way, I am luckier than everyone else. Because of having Hannah as my friend for so long, I have seen the way that people with disabilities can be treated. I grew up knowing that people with disabilities are the same as everyone else, but they don’t always get treated that way. Because of this knowledge, I became friends with more people like Hannah, and time and time again, I saw how they were like everyone else. Because of Hannah, I became more understanding and patient, and my heart for people in general grew.
People with disabilities aren’t different from anyone else. And being friends with someone with a disability doesn’t make you a good person… But it made me a better one. I realize now how people with disabilities are often wrongly overlooked. Because of my friendships with people with disabilities, I am more aware people who might need a friend.
I can say it over and over again—people with disabilities aren’t different, but until you become close friends with someone with a disability, you won’t understand what I mean.
