Mentally Handicapped

A common goal of humanity is to determine what breeds contentment. Nice cars, popular friends, a hot date, and a flashy shirt perhaps achieve this objective for most people. Sometimes life's commodities seem to serve happiness with a side of headache, and weigh us down with an oppressive order of responsibility and pressure. We often get caught up in our "biggie sized" world and forget to look at life's simple pleasures. Rather than making us more content and complete, superficial desires and wants can obscure our true aspirations, laying down a thick fog over the road of life. Leonardo da Vinci, 15th century Italian artist and inventor, poses an intriguing statement: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." It wasn't until this summer that I really understood what he meant.

Meet Jamie, your average 15-year-old boy. He loves to be outside in the warm rays of the summer sun, enjoys relaxing, not doing a stitch of work, and greets his friends with a smile and a hug. His parents are exceedingly proud of him, while peers and adults give him the respect he deserves. While he may seem like every other 15 year old you know, one unique aspect of Jamie's persona provides him with a perspective that not many other teenagers are lucky enough to embrace: Jamie has Downs Syndrome.

This summer, I observed that social situations were not Jamie's forte. Some kids would play whiffle-ball, others would fight over the swings, and many passed the time coloring and playing music. While others compared sneakers, basketball jerseys, and showed off new watches, Jamie typically kept to himself. Jamie never seemed interested in these kinds of activities; in fact, he didn't seem to worry about much at all. It might be difficult to see how Jamie could be content in this self-made isolation, away from his outgoing peers, but this was not the case at all. Jamie would sit by himself at the picnic table with nothing but a Koosh ball, a comb, and a smile. He would hold his comb and wiggle his Koosh ball for hours on end, laughing the entire time and looking so very content and complete. Some might say that Jamie knows no better, and that he's not as smart as the rest of us, shutting himself out from the world. Well, they have it all wrong. Jamie knows more than any teacher I've ever had in school. I just so happened to be blessed with the opportunity to have Jamie as my teacher this year.

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