Gladys Garcia
1997 MAX Fellow
Woodrow Wilson School (now closed), Boston, MA
In 1997, Gladys shared the story of her mother’s hearing loss when Gladys was 8 years old. In her award-winning essay, she discussed the bullying she faced due to her mom’s disability and the anger that she felt. She also shared her journey to learn sign language so that she could communicate with her mom. Gladys writes:
"Writing the MAXCourage essay gave me the voice that I needed to advocate for myself and stand up against bullying."
A mom of three, Gladys continues to exemplify courage. She is currently a Clinical Program Manager in the behavioral health division of Advocates Inc.
Glady’s Essay
Susan Aylward, Teacher
Woodrow Wilson School
“Courage is there but it takes a while to find it. When you do find it, it gives you the greatest feeling in the world.”
Every day, one twelve-year-old girl greets the morning with a frown and gets out of bed to go to school. She hears the usual compliments and the usual insults. But every once in a while an insult shoots past her that she just cannot tolerate. I am the twelve-year-old, and this is and always will be my story of courage.
One day, when I was about eight years old, I was old enough to understand that my family would never be the same. My mother, Bernice, had had ear infections that were so destructive that her ear was damaged. No problem, I thought. But then, I was struck with the most awful thought. My mother was deaf. I did not cry because I couldn’t. I tried to help my mother by taking sign language classes with my older brother and with my father. My father is still struggling now to use sign language.
After about six months, I had enough sign language skills to be able to communicate with my mother daily. In fourth and fifth grade, kids started to tease me about my mother. Every time this happened, I broke into a rage and started to fight angrily. As a result, I got myself into trouble because of it. Even now, although I am in the sixth grade I still have this problem. My mother always comforted me and things would be OK for a time, but then the problem would start over again.
Right now I am in the process of dealing with my temper and dealing with the fact that my mum will not get better. For now, my only way of getting to know her is by using sign language. My mother did change and she will never be the same, and neither will I. I have courage. The courage I have is soft courage.
Some people may think my courage is not important, but I feel, and many others feel, I do show courage. Courage is there but it takes a while to find it. When you do find it, it gives you the greatest feeling in the world. A twelve-year-old girl is still frowning at the idea of school but is smiling now, because she has courage.