THE MIDGE MASTER

There are many types of courage and many ways of showing that courage that remain unnoticed or not talked about. Courage to many people can mean standing up for you or being physically strong and tough. Courage can even mean facing your fears or your enemy as people do everyday in order to get over them. Another type of courage is quiet and simple, and may not even look like courage to people on the outside. I am talking about the courage to live everyday with a condition that causes pain and suffering.

My five year old brother, Logan, has strawberry blonde hair, a goofy smile and a condition called Prunebelly Syndrome. When he was born he had no stomach muscles and had a deformity of his urinary organs. A short thirty two hours after he was born he was taken to surgery. The doctors explained to my stepmother that Logan would have problems with sitting, standing and walking due to the missing muscles. He would face many infections, surgeries and treatments due to the urinary organs being abnormal.

Five years later, Logan has been to more doctor visits, had more infections, and been examined more often than most people will in a lifetime. He has had five surgeries in five years and may need more in the future. That is five times being put to sleep in a strange environment and five times waking up in a cold hospital bed in pain. He will always be at risk for infections and may never be able to father children of his own.

However, Logan today is a happy five year old. He is the youngest of five children and loves having three older brothers and one sister to look up to. He is very used to being in a big noisy family and blends right in. Logan has a very big sense of humor and loves to be the goofy funny one in the room. He doesn't complain or cry about the pain in his life or times when he has to take long rides just to see another doctor in another hospital room. He runs, jumps, wrestles, and attacks as if he has no sense of hurting or limits. He only wants to be a regular five year old.

Logan has a special type of courage that keeps him a regular five year old. His courage is not the loud strong tough guy kind that many people think of as courage. His courage is about living his life everyday with a smile not a disease.

Samuel
Grade 6