*** Unified ***

I'm in high school this year with Coy. We car pool in the mornings together, walk into school together, and eat lunch together everyday. He knows all of my friends and I know all of his. On Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays I get to work as a Teacher helper in his class which is always pretty much the most amazing part of my day. The other kids in his class are just as amazing as he is, well almost haha. Coy Rocks!
This is a amazing story that I'm about to tell. My high school this year for the first time ever teamed up with the Special Olympics and participated in a Unified Basketball Game where my school and our rival high school Heritage formed a team consisting of special ed/ regular ed students and played each other during half time at a basketball game. So many of my friends showed up to participate in the game or to cheer for the teams from the stands. It was a goose bump kind of night for sure. For Coy and his classmates it was the Big Game. It was an opportunity to be apart of the school outside their small corner classroom or their very back of the room cafeteria table. For my friends and fellow student body, it was an opportunity for them to look beyond the label or disability and see the potential of these kids, something I get to see everyday. I saw one of the most popular junior boys chest butting and high five-ing the special ed students with enthusiasm. The cheer leaders were cheering from the side, the students were cheering from the stands, and the kids faces lite up with triumph with each basket they made like it was the championship game. Although my high school won the game 16-10, and Coy lead the team with the most points 8, the real accomplishment was that for the first time in his life and the life of his class mates, they were shown value, and acceptance by their school. They were not over looked but the center of everyone's attention that night. They were not mocked or teased but cheered for and applauded for. I'm sure that night at that game lives were changed, eyes were opened, and memories were made. Unified, not a very big word at all, but a very big deal!!