22. The Best Day

     Last Friday, June 2nd, was one of the best days of my entire life. Our school hosted a field day for all the special ed. kids in the county. The kids who came ranged from elementary to high school. As part of the school's Red Cross club, I volunteered to help out. Each volunteer was assigned a partner to hang out/play with/help throughout the day. My partner was a third grade boy who, for the purpose of this post, I'll call Red.
     Red was absolutely one of the sweetest children I've ever met. He was kind and friendly and polite. He could speak and use his hands and communicate fine, but he could not move his legs and was in a wheelchair. All he wanted to do was play ping-pong. I played ping-pong with him for almost two hours straight, and I spent almost half that time running after the ball (I'm the worst at ping-pong), but that kept him laughing. At one point, another girl came over to also play at the ping-pong table. She had quite a bit of trouble moving her arms to use the paddle, but Red would roll the ball to her and let her take as many turns as she wanted, which, in my opinion, is very generous as a third grader.
     He told me about his siblings, and his favorite subject, color, and what he liked to do in his free time. Later, our school's dance team came by to teach all the kids some dances and have a "dance party." Red slayed everyone's life with his whipping and nae-naeing, but what really had me shocked was when during the Cupid Shuffle when the line "now kick" came on, he picked up his leg as if to kick. I'm not sure exactly what it was about the gesture, but it was heartbreaking.
      After the dancing he got tired and let me push his wheel chair. At that point it was time to eat, so he had pizza and we just talked. Once he finished eating, we played one last quick round of ping-pong before it was time for all the students to go back. He gave me a hug before he left, and I let him know that I'd love to see him again next year, to which he agreed.
       I can't remember very many times where my heart had felt so, so, so full. The amount of joy and kindness I witnessed that day was incredible, and I hope to be able to help out again next year.