How A Child Has Impacted My Life

On June 11th, 2009, a child was born. This child was beautiful. This child was loved. This child was a blessing. However, later in this child’s first year of life, this child started having seizures. A tap of the foot, a shake of the hand, little by little growing worse. This child is six years old now, and no, this child has not gotten better. This child has underdeveloped mentally and physically due to seizures. However, this child has a smile that can brighten anyone’s day. This child’s laughter is contagious to everyone around. This child has impacted my life is so many ways. This child is the reason I am writing this essay today. This child is Reece.

For much of my life, I never understood what was wrong with Reece. At the time she was born, my family lived in Kentucky and Reece’s family lived in Pennsylvania. Her mother was my mother’s sister, so we made yearly visits during holiday and summer breaks. Eventually, my family decided we needed to be closer to our family, so we moved home, back to Pennsylvania. The visits to my aunt’s became weekly and I slowly started to notice all the struggles Reece had to go through to just live her life. Walking was a challenge, talking was a challenge, eating, playing, sleeping, even standing were all daily struggles Reece had to go through. All the things that I do myself without even thinking or considering, Reece had to try ten times harder just to pull through. I began realizing how

I remember laying in my bed at night just thinking about her. Sometimes I would get sad thinking about her hardships, other times I would feel happy thinking about how lucky our family is to have her. I always wished I could do something to make her life easier. I wanted to do something more than just feel sad for her. I started doing research on other children and adults with disabilities. I wanted to know what I could do to help not just my cousin, but other people struggling to develop in their