MPA Student Work

a personal essay from Guruprakash Singh, Grade 12:

I have Always Down Syndrome (ADS). Now before you jump to conclusions, let me explain to you exactly what Always Down Syndrome is. Always Down Syndrome is when you are always down to do something. For example somebody asks, “Hey man, you down?” and then you feel every single god given fiber in your body scream “don’t do it!” Then out of your mouth utters your doom: “yeah man I’m down!” Always Down Syndrome isn’t peer pressure either. It’s plain simple idiotic young teen pride. I have somewhat conquered the vile clutches of Always Down Syndrome. Now here is one of the many stories that lead me to think that I have made my escape.

It was a Sunday. The smell of wheat in full harvest mixed with the beating sun to make the perfect formula for laziness. My mind was free from any worry; it was a perfect beginning to the perfect morning of a dreary day. Just as I was preparing to relax for 14 hours straight I heard a shout that hit me harder than a cinder block to the back of the head, ”Kabbadi trip, if you’re on the kabbadi team we’re leaving right now!” “Aw crap!”was about the only thing I could think as I got ready to go to some far off competition were we all new the only reason that we were going was because we were white (for news coverage) and for integration of our school with the public of the Punjab. When we arrived, we were tired to the point only a Greek on the sixth day of Thermopoli could possibly understand.

We played, were beaten, and were then rushed on the stage to get our picture taken with these medals with a tractor on it, “the victorious angrez” (the Punjabi word for Englishmen). We were beaten, broken and had scratches -- not the kind that leave scars -- the ones that stay there for a week and sting real bad.

When I got back to the school, I was ready to go into hibernation when Raj Paul's older brother, Ajay came up to me and said, “Hey, Ka$h, you wanna play football?”

Once again any common sense I possessed at that time vanished when my (ADS) kicked in. I said, “Yeah, sure, bro.”

As I went out on to the football field my adrenaline was the only thing keeping me standing. Within a couple of minutes I caught a pass and ran with everything I had, but as you know, I didn’t have very much at the time. I remember this moment exactly how the movies portray it: in slow motion. Rishi was blocking for me on my right side and blocked Hari Amrit’s older brother from smearing me, but Har Rai came around the front of the block, and as our combined weight (330 lbs) came down hard on my poor left wrist, I heard a sickening “pop!” I held up my arm to display a roller coaster of flesh and broken bone.

I was laughing out of shock (I usually do when I break/fracture/tear something). I was put on an ambulance to the hospital that had to be the most bumpy painful ambulance ride I had ever experienced. On that ambulance ride, I had a lot of time to reflect on how the misconception of invincibility led me to play tackle football with no pads and no energy. It also gave me time to come up with the term Always Down Syndrome.