It has been said that the best friendships can form with the people least expected. One of my most meaningful connections was formed with an overweight, 52-year old, mentally handicapped woman who I met while being a counselor at a summer camp for mentally handicapped adults. I remember liking Stephanie from the moment I met her. Without waiting for an introduction, she ran up and threw her arms around me in a tight hug. For the remainder of the week, we were all but inseparable. Stephanie and I spent many hours walking through the woods engaged in conversation. I had never spent time with anyone so different from me. In addition to our acutely opposite physical features, Stephanie and I had very different personalities. I approached life as a giant checklist; I set goals and then worked towards accomplishing them. Stephanie moved slowly through life, taking the time to savor every moment. In just a simple walk through the woods, I would be concentrating on guiding her down the easiest, most efficient path. Stephanie loved to climb through briars and burrs just to look at a butterfly’s cocoon.
Stephanie also came from a vastly different background. Stephanie’s parents resented their daughter’s condition and did not have the interest or resources required to properly care for her. Thus, at first opportunity, Stephanie was sent to live at a group home. She hadn’t seen her parents in a very long time. Despite this hole in her life, in addition to her various physical ailments, Stephanie is the most positive person I have ever met. Although I had never thought of myself as a particularly negative person, my mood could occasionally be dragged down by the various curveballs thrown by life. However, after being exposed to Stephanie’s joy in every aspect of life, despite all her negative circumstances, I began to see how truly blessed I am.
In our time spent together, Stephanie showed me the true meaning of unconditional love. Despite being callously abandoned by her family, she was always talking about how much she loved them and how she couldn’t wait to see them in heaven. The love she showed towards everyone, even people who rejected and taunted her, was the best representation of Christ’s love that I have ever seen.
Although I was only granted a relatively brief window of time to spend with Stephanie, she has made a vast impact in my perspective on life. Because of Stephanie, I believe that life is too precious for one not to try to see the blessings present in every moment of it. I believe that loving without conditions is the most powerful way to show Jesus to the world. Most importantly, I believe that the very people who we try to teach are the ones from whom we can learn the most.
