I'm Not a Superhero, But I know Several of Them

At one of my many jobs, I recently spent 20 minutes making holiday cards for one of my special needs clients to give out to the people in her life. It was a simple task and one that I didn’t think twice about doing for her. After I had finished and we put them away in a bag for her, she turned to me and said, “Do you want to know a secret?” I said of course I did, and she said, “Do you want to know where I keep you?” I asked where, and she pointed at her heart and said, “I keep you in here. You made my life worth living today,” and she began to cry.

 

She wasn’t the only one crying. I cried as I hugged her and promised that we could always talk. I cried because no one has ever said something of that magnitude to me before, but I also cried for her. Her physical appearance keeps people at a distance, and I have trouble wrapping my brain around that. She is the funniest and sweetest person that I have ever met and people are afraid of her because they don’t have the capacity to understand that she’s just another human being.

She’s bigger than her physical appearance and any diagnosis that a doctor has given her, and it breaks my heart that society doesn’t understand that. I want more than anything to make every single day worth living for her, but I also want society and the people staring from a distance to make her days worth living.

I still cry when I think of that moment and what it meant to both of us. People will always judge without taking a few moments to really understand who they’re making assumptions about, and that is why I spend my days loving and laughing with these incredible human beings. I am so lucky to have the jobs and experiences that I do and I only wish that I could share them with every person that stands at a distance and whispers ignorant comments under their breath.

I have all of these special needs angels who look at me like I’m some sort of superhero because I actually spend time talking to them and I tell them that I love them every time I see them. I’m not a superhero–it’s a title that I don’t deserve. I have these human beings who make my heart swell with happiness and love, and I wish they could see that they are the ones who are the true superheroes.

This post originally appeared on My Extraordinary Life.

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