"Cathedral" by Raymond Carver

When I was a sophomore in high school I had become a member of the National Beta Club.  One of the tasks of this club was to assist with the state Special Olympics.  As we rode the bus to the event we all were ignorantly joking of the events yet to come.  Some of my peers were even somewhat afraid of the special needs children we were designated to help.  Little did we know how special these kids truly were and how much in need we had been.  My friend and I were assigned to the hurdles, an event we both knew well being our schools leading hurdlers on the track team.  We mocked the first group as they came to the starting lines making bets on how many hurdles we would have to pick up.  The next four hours changed my life.  Though there were many hurdles we picked up not one kid gave up.  There were many of the children who could have easily surpassed a number of members on our track team.  David, a 10 year old boy with Down syndrome, changed my life.  As he was clearing his first hurdle his back leg grazed the hurdle and he fell hard.  As I went to help him off the track he looked me in the eye and said, “I’m going to finish.”  I helped him back up and he ran for the next hurdle.  Unfortunately he neglected to jump in time and ran smack into the hurdle.  As I ran to help him up I saw he was laughing hysterically.  “That was a good one,” he said with jovial tears streaming from his eyes.  Helping him up, his arm over my shoulder, I started toward the bench.  David grabbed my face and said, “I’m going to finish.  What’s the point of racing if you don’t cross the finish line.”  Choosing to walk around the hurdles instead of jumping over them David and I finished his race together.  It is a lesson I try to live to this very day.  What’s the point of all of our daily races if we just quit when we fall.  Sometimes in life we need to walk around our hurdles instead of trying to jump over them.  The courage and determination of each special needs child we helped that day has been a continued inspiration.