I am sitting here pretty dumbfounded at this moment at an email I just read. It puts everything into perspective. What is important? Family and friends is my answer. Anyhow a little background as to how we got to this email.
My son is getting bullied by a teammate on his club soccer team. This teammate is also on the local town team I coach....the bullying does not happen there as the kid knows it won't be tolerated for a second with any player let alone my son but its constant at club at this point. Anyhow, its gotten really, really bad of late. My son was in tears over what happened the other day. The kid was saying he is going to beat up CJ and make him cry....and CJ is scared. Thankfully he has a teammate that has almost adopted CJ as his younger brother and steps up every time to protect him. "Nate" has almost gone to blows twice over the last 2 weeks but the other kid thought better of it. Think of Nate as a gentle giant....he is not letting the little kid get picked on by someone twice his size.
So that brings me to today. I sent Nates mom an email thanking her for raising an upstanding young man that steps up to do the right thing even when its hard. She responded that my email made her day as 2020 has been incredibly hard for her and the family. She let me know she lost her 15 year old daughter this year unexpectedly earlier this year- hit me like a ton of bricks today. For those that don't know I am a wellness teacher- I can read between the lines and sadly her daughter lost a bitter fight with mental illness. Suicide prevention is something I teach yearly and when I teach it later this year I will have this young girl on my mind while I do.
Not really sure why I am posting this other than you never know what someone else is dealing with so we all need to cut some people some slack.