Lesson learned, that you didn’t realize, until many, many, many years later, translated…
After graduation, I was sent to work in a class of special eds students, there were, children with an assortment of disabilities, and, coping with the situations that happens in the class became a part of my everyday lessons.
Back then, there were, eight children, of them all, Han gives me the most number of headaches, although he’d sat in his chair and behaved himself real well, but he was immobilized, couldn’t stand up on his own, and as he’d walked around, he’d needed someone for him to lean on to, and, he would have epileptic seizure from time to time too—the very first time I saw him have a seizure, it really, truly, scared me to death, he’d fallen down onto the ground, and started twitching, for several minutes on end, and, a couple of minutes later, he’d, stood up, by finding something to steady him again. Han’s mom told me, “The doctor told us, that he will become, more and more immobilized, and eventually, he can only, lay in bed.”
a class of special needs dancers, photo from online…
A year later I enlisted, afterwards, I was sent to a desk job at a school, left the special eds class I’d taught in. But, as the years flew right by me, I’d thought about my students from back then, and wondered, where they are now? And if they’re, all okay?
At a special needs children’s Olympic, I’d met Han’s mom, she was just as passionate, it’d reminded me of how she’d carried Han on her back to get him to school every day, took him out of the school’s gates. Han’s mom is now, the board chairwoman for the county’s special needs society, after a brief talk, she’d invited me to visit her home to see Han. About a week later, I’d gone to visit.
As I entered into his room, saw Han lying in bed, his body became a bit bloated, from the lack of moving around perhaps, I’d called out his name, he’d turned his head toward me. I’m thinking, he may have, forgotten who I was?
“Han, it’s been twenty years, how have you been? In these twenty year’s time, teacher got married, passed the exams to work as a head of a department, and now, I’m a school principal. Teacher want to apologize to you, back then, I didn’t know how to handle your conditions, every time you’d had a seizure, I’d shoved a handkerchief into your mouth, it must’ve been really uncomfortable, I’m sorry.” I’d quickly, thought up of all the words I’d wanted to say to him, maybe, even if I’d told him all of that, he couldn’t respond back to me. “Do you remember, how you’d had a seizure in class, and as you fell down, you’d, bumped your head on the cabinets, you’d bled so much that time, I’d carried you on my back, rushed to the entrance of the school to wait for the ambulance, to take you to get patched up at the hospitals, your mom also rushed there, she’d told me no worries. Now, all the schools cabinets had been wrapped by something that’s soft, I’m thinking that nobody will get hurt again.”
the dedicatons of teachers, not my photo…
I’d walked out of the bedroom, carried on in conversation with Han’s mom, known how hard she’d had it all these years, working, and caring for Han at the same time, and, with Han’s getting bigger in size, she can no longer, carry his weight anymore. Now, Han just, lay in bed most of the time, and needed people to turn him over, wipe his back constantly. But, something worth celebrating was, his epileptic seizures decreased.
As I left Han’s home, I didn’t dare to look back, fearing that my tears would flow out uncontrollably.
“Han, you know what? Every semester, I would set up a seminar on epileptic seizure for my teachers and students, to show them, that seizure in noninfectious, and, the teachers are all very tentative, hoping, that a child like you will NEVER be injured again!”
So, this, is how much of an effect working with this child with epilepsy had changed this man, and, he’d, learned a lot of things I’m certain, from working with his group of special needs kids too.
Life, the Obstacle Course 