(Picture owned by the Wix)
Meeting “Panama” and “Winter”
Hello everyone. I want to talk about one of my excitement and mystery field trips. First, at all, My parents have always taught me to be proud of who I am. I am proud to be deaf and not ashamed to have cerebral palsy. Sometimes people treat me different and I can be sad. When I am in a bad mood or am down, sometimes my parents will say, “remember Panama and Winter.” That always make smile.
When I finished the 4th grade, my parents picked me from school. I saw a lot of bags in the back and asked where we were going. They said, “you will see.” We drove for the rest of that day and stopped at a hotel to rest and be ready for the next day. I kept asking where we were going, but they still said, “you will see.” I was so irritated about it. Finally, the next day, we arrived at another hotel and they said, “we are here.” We were in Florida and they said that we were on vacation.
We stayed at a hotel on the beach. We played at the pool and on the beach and had a nice time. One day, my parents said that we were going to see something special. We went to an aquarium. I was bored but tried to make the best of it. My parents were telling me what was going on. I went to a tank and they brought a dolphin up to meet me. Her name was “Panama” and the biologist told me that she was deaf. I was so excited because I never saw a deaf dolphin before. I reached down to pet and play with it.
After a few minutes, another dolphin came up. This dolphin had a funny tail. Her name was “Winter”. It didn’t look right. The biologist said that the dolphin didn’t have a tail, so they made one for it. My dad said it was a prosthetic tail. She came up to me and I reached down to pet and play with her too. They said that both dolphins were special and that there were no other dolphins like them. I was excited because I saw that they could do what the other dolphins were doing. My parents said that they can swim and do tricks and whatever they wanted, but people needed to help them find another way.
I recently heard that “Panama” died. It made me sad because I remember playing with her. I remember how special that time was and thinking that if I want to do something, I just need to find another way.