Episode 5 - Sammy has some big news!

SammyCalls

This week is a special episode... Sammy tells us some pretty big news and we talk to both my mom and my dad about it! We hope you enjoy!

Sam Balegno has Down Syndrome, lives in Massachusetts and eats a lot of pizza. Jenna Balegno (his older sister) lives in California, has a dog named Norman and eats a lot of pizza. Listen in on their casual and candid phone calls to each other and get a little insight on what it means to have Down Syndrome… and more importantly… what it doesn’t mean.

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My relationship with my brother is definitely different. I've known forever that he has Down Syndrome but it seems like every few years of my life I have come to some epiphany about us...

When I was in first grade, I thought that I was born with Down Syndrome too. That I grew out of it and Sam would eventually too. My parents had to somehow break it to me that I actually never had Down Syndrome, and that Sam was special.

When I moved away to college, I met a whole new group of friends and realized that not everyone knows someone with Down Syndrome... and that some people don't even know what it is at all. It just never crossed my mind that I would have to explain what it was to someone, because I just assumed everyone knew.

Then a couple of years ago, when Sam came out to visit me without my parents, I was forced to address the fact that a large portion of my relationship with my brother consists of this very blurry line between being his sibling and being his caretaker. I had been completely unaware of that reality up until that point.

So when Sammy told us this week that he was thinking about moving into a group home, I got this wave of emotion that I was not expecting. I felt scared and almost sad about it. Of course, I am fully supportive of him being more independent but I think my inner caretaker kicked in and all of a sudden I was worried for him. This is where Sammy swoops in and demonstrates his incredibly insightful side. He comforted me. He told me that he'd been through what I am going through emotionally. That he had to watch me move away to college in South Carolina, and then the West Coast. That he was worried about me too... but that he had to let go. I don't think anyone could have comforted me more in that moment. He brought me back to being his sister.