A Laugh for a Thousand Triumphs

Growing up, I always took for granted the modes of communication and how they came so easy to me. It’s funny because something as essential as being able to talk to one another can be so devastating when you have that ability violently stripped away, or even worse the chance to was never even offered to begin with. However, laughing is one ability that seemingly most people can do including many disabled people by the reaction of their body alone. My best friend is like this. Although I’ll never hear him say more than single-syllable words the way his body reacts to the conversations around him is enough to tell everyone exactly what he is thinking at that moment. My cousin being the tremendous sports fan that he is loves to watch those movies too. His favorite sports movies are the movies Miracle and Karate Kid. He also loves to watch those documentaries based on the whole season of the championship-winning teams, you know of the professionals. Family and friends alike love to watch them with him and joke around about how we are all characters in the movie with him. He finds it particularly funny when my father switches between characters every five seconds. With that laugh, he changed my life.

Growing up in my family we all loved the outdoors, everyone spent their time outside when they could aside from me. For that reason, my family loved to go camping and enjoy kayaking, fishing, biking, boating, and campfire conversations. My cousin and his family would camp with us as well. However, glued to the wheelchair he may be, he would always wheel around with us to the pool or out kayaking. It was always fun to see him swimming around in the pool or reaching down over the side of the kayak to trickle his hand against the cold water of the lake. On these trips, we always had so much fun with him that he would even horse around with us as well. I remember this one particular time that his laugh was so wild, so crazy, and so contagious that it was one we would all remember for the rest of our lives. My uncle and I have this relationship where we would horse around at camp and he would always get me in this position to say uncle, it was always good fun. My cousin being the Karate Kid fanatic that he is was right next to me one time when we were horsing around. My cousin saw my Uncle get me into the pin position and my cousin knew exactly what to do. He silently wheeled over to my Uncle, undetected, got into the famous Crane Kick position, and literally kicked him saving me. My cousin, having limited mobility was somehow able to do the Crane Kick in his wheelchair, it was one of the single greatest camping moments ever. He instantly roared out “Hyah” the rest of us were all silent for a while then we roared with laughter. My cousin, with the biggest smile on his face, lived out his childhood dream and for that brief moment was the Karate Kid. The connection we all had with each other at that moment was one like no other, it was a laugh to remember. Now every time I race I am wearing the Karate Kid Bandana to remind me of my savior and that I am running for more than just myself, I am running for him.

p Trip @ Black Sturgeon” by Loimere is licensed under CC BY 2.0