Thank you. I’m not a professional journalist, though I am an aspiring writer.

Some of my efforts have better results than others, but I find the more I write the better I get at writing. I also find myself seeing more ideas around me everyday to write about that I didn’t notice previously.

Thanks again,
Sherri

Thanks and I’ll check out your link. The stories of the athletes are just incredible. I thought I was just volunteering to help out and it turned out that I was honored to be given the privilege to participate and assist these athletes. Getting to talk with them was amazing. It was the time in my life I stopped seeing so many limitations and started seeing abilities.

Now that I teach high school students, sometimes I have to talk with them about focusing on what they do well instead of dwelling on what they don’t do so well. I wish more typically abled children and young adults would participate in programs that give them the self-esteem training our Special Olympians receive from Special Olympics. Typically abled kids have a huge number of choices but don’t always take advantage of those opportunities. Special Olympians are taught to focus on their abilities instead of their disabilities. Typically abled kids sadly tend to dwell on their short-comings, and have no idea just how able they really are and how little they have to overcome to function in the world. They don’t realize how few barriers to the world they face.

I’m going to start recommending that my older teen students, especially the depressed ones, volunteer with our local chapter of Special Olympics or with special needs kids. Most attend private schools and have to do community volunteer projects as a requirement to remain enrolled. They don’t realize just how much they have and how much their special friends can teach them about themselves. They usually don’t ask me about volunteer opportunities, but I’m going to start bringing it up so they can get involved now.

Thank you for your kind comment — sherri