Practice Blog Post

My name is Kelly Campbell and growing up in my family was a lot different than most families. All my life I have been surrounded by people with special needs. Both of my parents professions allowed them to work with individuals with special needs. I also have an older sister named Amy with special needs. She has whats called Cri-Du-Chat Syndrome basically, part of her 5th chromosome is missing. Since, Amy has Cri-Du-Chat, it allowed us to travel all over the United States like, Ohio, Utah, California, New York and that is just to name a few. My family and I have lived in Alabama most of my life, but we also lived in Arkansas for some time as well. Alabama is where I am meant to live because I do not like cold weather at all. I love spending time with my friends and family but I also love being outside especially at the beach. My favorite place to spend my summer vacation is Camp Smile, an over night camp for kids and adults with mild and severe disabilities.

I am attending the University of South Alabama mainly because it is where I received the most scholarship money. My dream college would have been Auburn University, I mean after all it is where I am from and it is the team I cheer for. I am majoring in Elementary Special Education. You might be able to guess my passion, which is working with kids with special needs. Although you might think that this has always been my passion, sadly it has not. When I was a kid I was always known as Amy's sister and no one really knew me as anything else. So, like most confused kids I tried to ignore it, instead of accept it. Now, I am not saying that I did not accept her as a sister because I did, I was still trying to find out who I wanted to be. It was not until 2008 when I found my passion in life. That was my first year at Camp Smile and it totally changed my life. It taught me to always put others first and to lend a helping hand when ever it is needed. Camp has also taught me to ask for help when ever I need it, but that is still the thing I need to get better at doing. Most importantly, it helped me realize that it is okay to be known as Amy's sister and it opened the door to my future.