I will never forget you too. :)

September 10, 2010 || 10:19am

The AK Sped Visit was indeed magical. From the moment we exited the school up to the moment we came back, I knew that drastic change has happened to me and how I see things around me. Here are a few lessons that I have learned:

1) You can choose to look at either the good or bad things in your life. I was surprised because many of the kids seemed very happy and contented with their lives. It made me think, "Why can't people like us who have no physical problems be contented with what we have?" God gave us so many blessings that we don't even have to ask for more. All we have to do is to be thankful and happy. We cry, complain, worry about tomorrow, get annoyed easily, feel anger because of shallow and unreasonable things that happen, and the worst, we get jealous and envious of what other people have that we don't. We tend to look at the bad side of our life rather than just accepting God's blessings and making the most out of them. We are luckier than most people here on Earth. God gave us a family, a home, good education, a stable supply of food, a chance to help and many others. But what does a delicious cake look like without icing and decorations? And in this case, those are represented by happiness and contentment.

2) Certain things in our lives happen for a reason. When we don't get something we want, we feel depressed, sad and we sometimes ask God why. But I found this beautiful quote somewhere:

God doesn't give you what you want. He gives you what you need and deserve.

What we want isn't always right for us. We sometimes think that way. But God knows what's best for us. And He knows why the kids we met cannot hear. He did not give them the ability to hear or speak because he wants them to stay pure of the many sinful words that they may say or hear. He wants to make us realize that even though we are different, we are all equally blessed in different ways.

3) Not just people are meant to have purposes of existence because even places have. In the SPED Center, sign language and written English were the main ways to communicate. God showed us that even verbal communication is not possible, we can all still speak the Language of Love where words mean nothing but actions from the heart are natural and not forced. The SPED Center is one of the few places in the world that we can equate to what is considered an ideal environment. It is where no one is considered unwanted in society, where everyone understands that actions speak louder than words, where every person discovers a friend in another even though they met for only a short time, where understanding is uncontrolled, and where people's hearts are set free of the barriers that hinder them from doing what they really want.

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Before we left, my partner, Ate Rovi, did something memorable. She did some hand signs that I can't decipher. I wrote on the paper, "What does it mean?" And she wrote, "It means 'I will never forget you.'"

The whole experience, the mom we met and talked to, Ate Rovi, and the lessons I learned are only memories to me now...that I will never forget. :)

“What is uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to your own.”

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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