Sam / Proud

Maybe this should have been my first post. I don't know. Either way, it's number two. Number two isn't so bad.

I'm from Foxborough, Massachusetts. Some may recognize it as the hometown of Gillette Stadium and the New England Patriots or maybe by the accomplishments of our town's high school jazz ensemble such as performing at Barack Obama's 2008 inauguration. Or maybe even as the hometown of the singer JoJo...

But, this week, the way people should recognize it is as the hometown of Sam Berns. I went to high school for a year with Sam. He was a freshman when I was a senior, but my connection to him is irrelevant.

He was known as "Sam the Man" to some "Big Sam" to others, but I always just stuck with Sam. He was short, probably no taller than 4'6". He had no hair for most of his life. His limbs and joints were shaped by bone rather than by muscle. There was no denying he looked different than everyone else in the room. He had progeria, a disease that caused him to age quicker than the average person and inflicts fewer than 350 people in the entire world. However, within minutes of meeting and speaking with him, I dismissed all these shallow observations as did anyone else who spoke with him. After a day, his differences barely registered when I saw him.

Because Sam was, to me, an inexplicably happy person.

His life expectancy was twelve years. He passed away last week at the age of seventeen, less than eighteen months shy of high school graduation. However, Sam's seventeen years were incredible, and I am one of presumably hundreds who didn't realize this until after his death.

He spoke at a TEDxTalk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36m1o-tM05g
He spoke with figures like Katie Couric, Robert Kraft, Tom Brady, and Dave Matthews
He was the focus of an HBO documentary: "Life According to Sam" http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/life-according-to-sam/synopsis.html#/documentaries/life-according-to-sam/index.html
He was intended to be an honorary captain at tomorrow night's Patriots game.

And all along, we heard from him again and again some incredibly powerful statements: "I want you to get to know me. This is my life. Progeria is a part of it. It's not a major part of it." And: "I didn't put myself in front of you for you to feel bad for me. I put myself in front of you to let you know that you don't need to feel bad for me."

He is part of one of the smallest minorities in the world; he faced some of the hardest unavoidable challenges a person can face. However, all the way through it, he led the most inspirational life, I have ever been witness to(even if I was just a part of it for a single year, albeit, an undoubtedly insignificant part).

Part of me feels selfish, even ignorant, to even try to compare my life with his, but, as Ash Beckham in her own TEDxTalk states, "There is no 'harder.' There is just 'hard.' We need to stop ranking our 'hard' to everyone else's 'hard' to make us feel better or worse about our closets and just commiserate on the fact that we all have 'hard.'" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSR4xuU07sc
And the more I think about Sam and his life, the more I realize the power that being a part of a minority has. He was plagued with progeria, yes, but, because of it, he discovered opportunities to change the world with his very presence, through unimaginable pride, positivity, and personal strength.

Sam is why I can be proud too. Because, no matter how difficult the challenges are that I face, I know that struggle, being a part of a minority, is as much a source of strength as muscle.