A Changed Perception :: Best Buddies Downs Syndrome Essays

A Changed Perception Kids with Down’s syndrome. A special classroom. Different. These were the sorts of thoughts I had about mentally retarded people before I participated in Best Buddies for my English 30 service leadership project. Along with four of my classmates, I went to the Best Buddies meetings and two events, a Halloween party and a Penn State women’s volleyball game, and had some exposure to people who have mental retardation. Although the program was not what I’d expected it to be and was frustrating at times, the experience was worthwhile and valuable. There were many surprises that we encountered while doing our project. During the club meetings we were told that we would all be getting buddies, and my group and I were very excited. We had planned activities that we could do with them and even went through an interview process to be matched with one. However, there were too many college students to each be matched to a buddy. This would not have been so disappointing if I had still had a lot of contact with some of the buddies, but even at the party and the volleyball game there were many more college students than buddies. As a result, when I was at the events, I didn’t spend a lot of time talking to the buddies because there were so many other people talking to them as well. Plus, most buddies had their college student next to them, and so it was hard to find an opportunity to talk with them. At those times, I felt like it didn’t matter that I was there. If I hadn’t been there, the club h ad enough other people that having one less person would not have been noticed. But while I was talking to a buddy, I felt like I was actually making someone’s day a little bit brighter, and in the end, this is what was important. Talking to the buddies was definitely the highlight of the program. At the Halloween party, I talked to two different ladies, both named Nancy, for a while. When I was talking to one of them, I felt like I was making a difference in their day, and I felt like my time was being well spent.