Vahdan

I'm going to write about some of the people who have inspired me over the years from time to time and write some of the reasons why. Maybe they can help inspire others who haven't met them yet :)...

The first person is Vahdan. He was my favorite student at NHS (even though many of them hold a huge, special place in my heart) and he's definitely in my top 10 for favorite people in the world (this list includes family members, so it's a big deal that he's on it). The reason I think he's one of the best people EVER is because he lives life better than anyone I know. There's some phrase about how people should dance like no one's watching and that's the kind of person he is. He lives life without inhibitions and doesn't care what people think of him. He knows how he feels the majority of the time and he knows how to express it, which is better than most people without disabilities can do. When he was happy, he would joke around and have fun. When he was sad, he would cry. When he was angry or frustrated, he would pout and tell the person he was mad at exactly what they were doing to make him feel that way.

There was one time when he was picked to be in a hula hooping contest in front of the entire school during a pep rally. He went up there, circled the hoop around his waist a couple of times, then it would hit the floor. He kept doing this during the entire contest and didn't care that he was losing because he was having a blast up there. Once he was finished, he took the microphone from the pep rally commissioner and started cheering into it, "Go Northwood, WOOOOO WOOOOO WOOOOO!!!" (or something like that... it was all very school spirited). How many 10th graders are able to do that without shame? I'm pretty sure he's the only one.

My favorite memory of him was from my 28th birthday. He was going to play "Happy Birthday" for me on the piano, but he felt he needed to do something else first. He held up his water bottle and said in his Armenian accent, "We need to do a toast." I nearly died while doubling over in laughter because I was not expecting a toast from a student at 9 in the morning. Then he said, "How old are you?" Brett said something along the lines of, "It's not a good idea to ask a lady her age," but I answered, "28." Vahdan gives a toast which basically consisted of, "To Miss Boyd, at 28," and I continued laughing hysterically because I NEVER knew what to expect with that kid.

To summarize, here are a few of the things that Vahdan taught me:
1) Don't care about what others think because you'll have more fun in the process.
2) Know how you feel and express it. No matter what the emotion is, it's probably better than keeping it bottled up inside.
3) Remember to celebrate people because it makes them feel loved.

I hope that one day I'll be better at applying these things to my life. I'm glad that I got to see his example for the past 2 years, though.