Cadi

She wasn't what I expected her to be. Dark skin, black hair, and no taller than a ten-year-old. I looked her over as I walked towards her, quickly categorizing her as one of the more stubborn ones. Man, was I in for a treat. Two whole hours of having her as my partner. By the sound of it, my stomach was more than ready for those two hours to be over. Mmm....BBQ chicken, I couldn't wait. Ok, back to the lesson. Baptism...blah blah blah, we had heard it thousands of times, but never like this. It was Stake Young Women's girls camp. We had come up to Mutual Dell for the week. Wednesday afternoon was designated Service Day. The 3rd years went up to the field where they were to have an activity with the Special Needs Mutual.

"And Krista.... you're with Cadi," called out one of the leaders. "Kay," I mumbled, as I walked towards my partner. I put on a smile and asked Cadi how she was. A huge grin spread across her face. We sat through the lesson, or at least tried to. None of the "kids" had long enough attention spans to last through the five minute lesson. There were occasional whispers, but most of the time anything that was on one of their minds was blurted out. I could tell right away that Cadi was special. She had something about her that not a lot of people have, I just couldn't put my finger on it. She made comments about Jesus and how much she loved him. The way she looked at people was extraordinary, as if everyone was her best friend. She held on to my hand tightly and gave me occasional hugs. At first it caught me a little off guard, but by the end of the day it seemed second nature to get a hug from her every couple of minutes.

When the lesson was over, we walked across the lawn to a couple of tables surrounded by chairs. Papers were quickly handed out and crayons scattered on the table. We laughed at silly jokes, and had fun conversations. Getting to know each other seemed like a bit of a difficult task through words, but body language was a huge help. At that point in time, it seemed like the differences we had 15 minutes ago, was now set aside. We were friends, best friends. I couldn't help but think of how the outside world labels special people like these kids as "retards." How can they judge someone they don't even take the time to get to know, just because they look, think, and act differently than us? I learned so much from Cadi that afternoon.

I watched as Cadi went around from person to person, playfully teasing them. She recognized every person individually, instead of overall as a group, which we often do. She would look into their eyes and mumble some words that I didn't always understand, but could usually catch the important parts. She would tease me, and I would tease back. Sometimes she'd steal my crayon, in that case I would smile and get a different color crayon. By the end, the girl on my paper ended up having multi-colored skin and clothes. It reminded me of Cadi. She may be different on the outside, but she is still beautiful in her own way. Never had I seen someone with so much enthusiasm towards life.

Cadi did a heroic thing that day. She taught me how I should look at life. She showed me what I could not see myself. Life is beautiful. I don't need to waste my time criticizing and judging others. I learned that I need to love everybody, no matter what. It's not what's on the outside that matters. I need to look deeper than that. Cadi sacrificed her time and her love for me, so I could learn a lesson that I would never forget. That day I left with more than a lesson learned. I brought home a present, a very special present that I still to this day keep in my journal. A picture of an innocent looking girl being baptized, blue and purple splashing the page. On the bottom it reads "Cadi."