Lesson #28: I wish it wasn’t on the news (sort of).

by Maggie on October 28, 2014

This is part of the 31 for 21 Blog Challenge! We’re almost to the end……

Frequently, news articles pop up on my Newsfeed on Facebook with headlines like Couple with Down Syndrome Chosen as Prom King and Queen or Man with Down Syndrome Opens Restaurant. I love these celebrations of people’s accomplishments. They are “feel good” stories. They are inspirational, barrier breaking, door-opening.

They also make me sad.

Articles like the above represent a weird paradox for me. I am uplifted by them because they are a reminder that there are no limits to what Tessa can do. I’m annoyed by them because if society would just stop seeing her as less than, they wouldn’t have to be news stories in the first place.

Celebration and a heavy sigh in the same breath.

I want Tessa to be accepted by her peers and I don’t want someone on the Nightly News to think that acceptance merits a news story.

I want Tessa to do whatever she is capable of and I don’t want anyone to be surprised when she does.

I realize that we are not there yet and so the new stories are necessary. I’m thankful that the message being spread is that people with Down syndrome can (whatever). I know that when we first got the diagnosis, there was a tremendous amount of comfort for my husband in watching a YouTube video of a boy with Down syndrome receiving a college acceptance letter. He probably watched it 400 times during the first week After. I just hope that someday, this becomes so commonplace that we can celebrate in the same way we would for our typical daughter – with a dinner out at Chili’s and an extra scoop of ice cream for dessert.

Someday.