The Childlike Me

Although I majored in social work and had worked at a social welfare agency, to be honest, I didn’t understand what making bread meant to the lives of people with intellectual disabilities, nor did I ever think there would be any connection between such things and me. At a small work facility, I met, for the first time in my life, a group of these childlike individuals. Most of them were “big kids” with moderate intellectual disabilities,

One of the most memorable experiences during my service was during the Mid-Autumn Festival when everyone was busy packaging dried fruits. The task for the childlike individuals was to transfer dried fruits from large packages into smaller bags, and then place them into mooncake boxes. Most of them couldn’t perform what seems to most people a very simple task—“weighing.” Even those with relatively better abilities took two to three times longer than an average person to weigh a pack of 100–105 grams of dried fruit. Some couldn’t even grasp the difference between 100 and 105 grams; they could only understand that when the scale displayed “100,” it meant the package could be sealed. One childlike individual spent a lot of time taking dried fruits out and putting them back in, but every time he managed with great effort to reach 100 grams,after getting confirmation from the life assistant, he would continue weighing while happily talking to himself: “I’m so great~ I’m the best!” This experience gave me quite a shock. I rarely have experiences of working happily or praising myself for being “great.”

Even though I am a person with normal physical and mental abilities, most of the time, I wait for others to give me negative feedback or I criticize myself for not doing well enough.But they didn’t give up or lose their temper just because it took a lot of time or effort; instead, they persevered throughout the process. They saw and treasured what they had, and encouraged themselves.What moved me the most was that they showed the joy of simply being alive. Thank you to every childlike individual who taught me life lessons—they are my mentors and friends. (Text by social worker Zhang Yanqing)