New experiences have always created an anxious feeling in my body. Moving to a new town and enrolling in a new school at a young age could be hard for anybody. The idea of having to start over and make new friends when you are only eleven years old was what I considered at the time the “worst thing ever”. If it wasn’t for the people I met at the time, I would not have enjoyed any of it but luckily I met some people that changed my life forever. As days passed in my new school, I started picking my groups and sitting by my friends in class and at lunch. This was when I met Josh Santee, my soon to be best friend who taught me that there is more to life than just achieving success for yourself.

We had all of the same classes throughout middle school and high school so we got close over the years. One day, I went to his house to do some homework and he introduced me to his family. This was when I met Sam, a beautiful, kindhearted eight year old with autism. I never met anyone with autism before that day so he kindly explained to me how we were a little bit different. Over the years, we would take her out with us to get food or to the movie theater because she loved to be out. She loved every minute she spent with her older brother so he did his best to do all the things she loved and I was lucky enough to tag along.

They had a difficult life because they didn’t live this expensive lifestyle that he would always say she deserved but, he did the best to make her the happiest she could be. Before meeting Josh and Sam, I never knew of a person truly putting someone before themselves. He taught me that just because his beloved younger sister wasn’t given the opportunities that we had, didn’t mean that she couldn’t enjoy the successes that came with them. He treated her as if she was his own and I’ve admired him ever since.

Josh is now 20 years old, working and going to school all while providing a home for Sam. Their parents and family were not in the picture throughout the years and he knew that if he couldn’t provide for her that she’d be taken away. I respect Josh so much and I am so grateful that I got to watch him grow into this amazing provider for his sister. Meeting him taught me so much and I’ve never valued a relationship more. That idea that leaving all my friends for just some new school was such an underestimated view of what it actually turned out to be. I am lucky to have met both of them and value their friendship more than any others I have.