Every summer, I try to find a summer job to try to keep myself busy and also to pay for some of my personal expenses. I've had all kinds of jobs from being a camp counselor to working at Chik-Fil-A, and in every single one of those jobs, I've learned valuable life lessons.
This past summer, I decided to offer my services as a babysitter since I love spending time with kids. I received a call from one parent who wondered if I would be interested in watching his sixteen-year-old daughter and tutoring her for the SAT and ACT. I was a little confused as to why sixteen-year-old needed supervision, but I was intrigued so I agreed to meet with the family.
My interview didn't even seem like an interview, but rather a casual chit-chat. It turned out that the daughter, who I'll call Amy, had cerebral palsy and needed someone to be with her during the day while her parents went to work.
At first, I was a little apprehensive about taking the home health aide job because I didn't know if I would be able to act appropriately in case an emergency happened. I was scared that I would do something wrong and get in trouble. But in the end, I ended up agreeing to work for them since the family was so friendly and Amy seemed really excited about spending time with someone around her own age.
Apart from helping Amy with daily tasks like taking a bath and combing her hair, I didn't feel like I was working at all. Every day was different, and we would do regular things that all girls our age did. I painted her nails, showed her how to play the piano, and helped her study for the ACT and SAT. I took her out to lunch, and I would drive her to physical therapy and showed her my favorite music.
Amy also showed me a lot of new things too, like her favorite television shows and music that she liked. She would tell me about boys she liked, her sister in medical school, and how she was anxious about college. Amy was inspiring to me in a lot of ways because, in spite of all of the obstacles she had to face, she had this unwavering positivity and enthusiasm about her future. She wanted to prove that her disability did not define her, and so she founded a social media platform dedicated to helping others with all kinds of disabilities.
Spending time with Amy this past summer made me realize that I take a lot of things for granted, but also that Amy wasn't that different from me. Her optimism about her life really encouraged me to be more grateful for what I had.
Although I was a little out of my comfort zone and didn't expect to be working as a home health aide, I'm glad to have had the experience and make a new friend along the way.
