Ana's Journey

This is about a mentally challenged girl.

"Wah!" the baby cried. The parents were as joyful as when they had their first child. They looked at her for the very first time. She was a beautiful newborn with round eyes and lips that curved slightly. Her mother cradled her gently, but she wouldn't stop crying.

They brought their newborn baby for the first time into the home. They were looking forward to the years, but they weren't prepared for the unexpected.

There was something amiss about her. As a baby, she hardly ever explored and cried when she watched tv. They never heard a word from her, only a cry when she was hungry. It worried them. So they took her to a psychologist for testing. She was very quiet and didn't make eye contact, and barely responded. Finally, the psychologist came back with the results. The news saddened her parents. She had tested poorly in every area, and her IQ was only 59. The psychologist told them it would be very unlikely that she would be able to finish elementary school.

Determined, her parents hoped for the best. It would be a long road ahead. She was placed in special education after failing the preschool exam. During this time, her parents worked with her so she would gain the necessary skills. She continued to make progress and by the third grade, had improved so much she was put in mainstream education.

She encountered a new set of challenges as she entered elementary school. Everything seemed so confusing and harder. The teachers were unpredictable, the tests baffled her, and making friends was difficult. She attended speech therapy and social work as well as help from her parents every night. Everything was finally making sense to her at sixth grade.

When she was in sixth grade, she prepared for her second Illinois Music Association contest. It didn't go well the year before, and she placed sixth. But this year would be different, she thought. This time she would win. She didn't know if she could make it, but she practiced for hours. After attending extra lessons and practicing more, she attended the contest. Anxiously, she waited for her turn. "1368" they called. She went up and relaxed her fingers. Now it was time to play. She remembered her goal in mind, and decided to play her best regardless of the results. Finally, she was done. More people came up to play their pieces, and then it was time for the results. They went through the list, and read the numbers by one-by-one. Her name was called last. She not only had won, but got the first place trophy. This was the moment of her life.

High school was getting easier. She studied less, but made less improvement. She was still in regular classes, but managed to get As and Bs. As she moved to a new high school, she was challenged yet again. The work was more rigorous and demanding, and the work was very different from her high school before. But she thought things through and gave it her very best. By the end of the year, she achieved much more than she thought and did even better than at her old school. She graduated at the top 25 percent of her class.

When she went to college, she studied hard again. This was a huge test for her, since she had heard so many discouraging comments for teachers. But this didn't break her spirit, it only made her work harder. She studied until dark and achieved a stellar GPA. It gave her confidence, and she applied for a scholarship. She responded to the question, "Why is it so important to attend college?" She thought about it, and related her own experience to the response. The mail came in the next day. She had gotten it. It was time to celebrate.

Finally, she graduated from college in 2007. She achieved beyond what she was told, and looked back on it with gladness. She was a college graduate, set out to do great things in the world.