In
the 6th grade I got the opportunity to go to the city-wide Special
Olympics. When most people hear “Special Olympics” they think
about a place where everybody wins in some type of way. This is not
the case. I was in 3 events and I lost every one. The first event was
a 50 yard dash in a wheelchair. I could not use my right hand, so I
had to roll the wheelchair with my one hand. So I lost. The next
event was a softball throw. Now, here was an event that in my mind, I
was really good at. I had been practicing for weeks. I could throw a
softball across my whole backyard. No problem. I thought that I had
this in the bag. I was the first one in line to throw. You got 3
throws. My best throw was about 10 or 15 yards, not bad. The guys
behind me didn’t have a physical disability but a mental
disability. I remember watching the whole event as it happened. They
gave the kid the ball and said, “Tommy, throw the ball!” And this
guy to my amazement, hail mary-ed that ball across the field. I just
walked away. I knew it was over. And what was funny about this was
that he was not the only one. Everybody behind me was throwing just
like him. The next event was my 50 yard dash. I was going to run
without a wheelchair, without anything, just running. This was about
when I was 14 or 15 so I had been on my feet for a while. I remember
that being one of the greatest moments ever. Not the fact that I won,
I ended up losing. But because I had just run a race on my feet which
any doctor would have told you was impossible. But with God all
things are possible. This really helped me build up my self-esteem.
Another
thing that happened at Shrine School that really helped me with my
self-esteem is the boys were always told to help set up for events,
which at another school I would have been told to sit aside and let
somebody else do it. But we were told to pull out all the chairs and
set up the tables. It was a great time. Little by little, I learned
more about what I was able to do. We also had a wood shop class where
we got to learn how to make bookshelves and anything anybody else
would. We were taught how to sand our projects and stain them. And it
was also our responsibility to do it. Nobody else would do it for us.
And if we messed up a project, we would just mess it up. At the
school I went to, since everybody was disabled, nobody got pity at
all and it was great.
