Writer’s Note: Offering another perspective, Travis, 15, written in 1998.
I was a lonely little kid. It seemed like my parents really didn’t care for me. My family wasn’t like yours. Mine was a bunch of little kids, me being the oldest. My Uncle Rick was just like my real older brother, even though he lived far away. My uncle couldn’t always be there for me.
Times got bad in my parent’s relationship. They divorced and I moved in with my dad. My dad was never around. I swear that he must have worked a one hundred hour work week. He never ever had time for me.
Finally I met Bill. I had seen him around Green Bay before because he always hung out where my friends and I did. Well then I found out that he lived right down the hall in the apartments that my dad and I lived in. So I got to know him. Bill had a hard time to gain my trust, but somehow he did it and we bonded.
For those of you that do not know, Bill is handicapped. He is like a nineteen year old kid. He’s full of energy. Well all and all he is a kid in heart and soul.
For example, Bill and I went to his family’s house Easter weekend. Well things got real boring so Bill and I decided to take things in our own hands. So we grabbed the fishing poles and set out for the lake.
After about three hours of fishing, Bill caught the dock five times, me twice, and believe it or not he even managed to catch himself. I caught the shore about three times and then I caught the biggest tree bass that I had ever seen in my short little life. Then I saw a real live fish! Well almost alive. Hey it was the best thing that we caught all day.
By the end of the day I was so tired it was not even funny. Bill on the other hand wanted to go swimming and do plenty of other things still. Well what do you expect, I told you Bill is just like a kid. Well it’s for sure he has more energy than me.
So why is it then that when Bill and I walk down the streets to do something so normal as buying a soda that people look at us weird? People start to stare, gawk, laugh, and talk. It isn’t Bill’s fault that that’s how he looks. For a fact he was born that way.
After sitting at my moms work computer and wondering I think I know why we do the things we do when we see people like Bill. They are different. But Bill can do more things than half of us reading this article right now.
Bill can and has run a TV camera. Bill even has a newspaper article. Do you? Bill has done plenty of accomplishments in his long exciting life. So as far as I can see, Bill is only different because he can out do us with that thing we call a handicap. Bill has proven to all handicapped people that no matter what people say or do to cut you down, there is and will always be someone there to help you be all that you can be.
