Vee Nguyen told Ben Davis (special needs student, sophomore) of Everett High School in Lansing, Michigan she’d go to prom with him ‘when pigs fly.’ Okay, so immediately you and I and anyone else would write Nguyen off as a stone-cold, heartless fiend for saying such a thing; but then she pulled off the greatest, arguably most heartwarming (I try to not use that word, like ever) prom proposal I’ve ever seen.
Davis lives with a rare condition referred to as pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration or PKAN. The condition makes it hard for him to chew, talk, and walk. Davis befriended Nguyen through a program offered at their high school that pairs incoming special needs freshmen with fellow students who act as mentor figures. Nguyen told the press her friendship with Davis has shed a great deal of light for her on what it means to live life, work through high school–an otherwise tough and trying part of anyone’s life–with disabilities. What a program huh? Well done Everett High School.
Nguyen also managed to pull off this straight fire, superbly commendable promposal in front of their entire school by asking Davis at the pep rally. She told the Detroit Free Press, “I thought doing it at the pep rally where there are a lot of students would be a great idea to spread the message and to let others know that no one should be treated any different.”
In a world surrounded by constant news, and much of it disheartening either because it’s so superficially, glamorized it’s nauseating, or it’s just war-ravaged, catastrophe; this is the kind of uplifting shit we need, every now and again. Just good ‘ol fashioned, good vibes. Way to be Vee Nguyen, way to be.