My youngest sister taught me some of the most important values in my life, acceptance, unconditional love, and positivity. My sister, Annabelle, was born with an extra 21st chromosome resulting in her having Down’s Syndrome. At the time I was only 8 and I didn’t know what it meant I was just ecstatic to have another sister. Throughout the years we received lots of pity and I would always hear “I’m so sorry”. Even today when I tell adults that I have a sister with special needs I still continue to hear the “I’m so sorry” and every time I hear it my throat gets tight and my fists clench as I struggle to find kind words to politely tell them that there is no need to be sorry. There is no need for anybody to be sorry because Annabelle has had the …show more content…
Annabelle enlightened me on many things growing up until now. Being around Annabelle taught me how to unconditionally love one another. Down’s Syndrome leads to people having mild cognitive impairment, delayed language, and less developed fine motor skills. Because of this Annabelle can not as easily pick up on social cues, however she is kind to everybody that she sees because she can understand raw human emotion. From giving hugs to strangers and seeing a smile light up their face….. she showed me that acts of kindness even the smallest go a long way. Years ago I attended the annual Thanksgiving potluck at my sister’s school, as a welcome activity each kid was asked to say something nice about a peer. An older boy, Ryder, decided to share about Annabelle. He proceeded to talk about how one day he was crying at school and Annabelle came up to comfort him. He told us he was so grateful to have a friend like Annabelle, a friend who would help him when he felt lonely and as though nobody else was there for him. Tears welled in my eyes as I listened to his story, and I was touched as I realized just how the actions you take affect others. From this point on I realized that I wanted to have the same positive impact on people as Annabelle had made on this little