I Want to Pursue a Career in Speech Therapy

“Wa-wa,” she said with that adorable childish voice.

“No, no Holly say water, wa-ter.” I said (slightly frustrated) for the tenth time that day. I know that during my childhood, my mother heard this conversation between my doll and I more times than she can count. Holly was a doll with a speech impediment that I got for Christmas one wear. She would say basic words (like “water”) incorrectly and I would correct her until she said the word properly. This doll was my first encounter with my dream career.

The summer after my sixth grade year, my mother decided to work as secretary for Special Ed Summer School. Although my little sister Madelyn and I refused to believe it, my mother thought we were too young to stay at home by our selves while she was at work. The next day she hauled us through our kicks and screams to work with her at six in the morning. My mother told me to go help her friend Ms. Tanya. When I got outside Ms. Tanya said hello and insisted that I just call hero she could tell my voice apart from all of the children. Tanya quickly scribbled a name and a bus number on my hand and said, “Ok, go get him off the bus. Tell the bus driver you are working with me. Hold his hand and do not let him out of your sight until you see me.” Petrified, I went to retrieve a kid form a bus with no inkling as to what to expect. The child’s name was Ethan and one look at him had me completely confused. He looked like a normal first grade. When we got to the classroom, Tanya told me that he is autistic.

I watched Tanya work with the kids for the first couple of days before I decided that I wanted to give what she was doing a try. It looked easy enough. I started working with just Ethan and slowly branched out. By the end of the week, I worked with all of the kids. I fell in love with helping those kids. When summer school ended, I went into the seventh grade knowing that I wanted to help children with my future job.

I went back to Special Ed Summer School so I could help Tanya and work with Ethan the next year and the year after that. The summer after my eighth grade year, I met Brian in Tanya’s class.