You’re probably about 15 years old, so I don’t expect you to be very mature or for you to want a little girl on your skate ramp for that matter.
What you don’t know is that my daughter has been wanting to skateboard for months. I actually had to convince her that skateboarding wasn’t for just for boys.
So when we walked up to the skate park and saw that it was full of teenage boys who were smoking and swearing, she immediately wanted to turn around and go home.
I secretly wanted to go too because I didn’t want to have to put on my mom voice and exchange words with you.
I also didn’t want my daughter to feel like she had to be scared of anyone, or that she wasn’t entitled to that skate park just as much as you were.
So when she said, “Mom it’s full of older boys,” I calmly said, “So what, they don’t own the skate park.”
She proceeded to go down the ramp in spite of you and your friends flying past her and grinding rails beside her.
She only had two or three runs in before you approached her and said
“Hey, excuse me …”
I immediately prepared to deliver my “She’s allowed to use this park just as much as you guys” speech when I heard you say,
“Your feet are wrong. Can I help you?”
You proceeded to spend almost an hour with my daughter showing her how to balance and steer, and she listened to you a feat not attained by most adults.
You held her hand and helped her get up when she fell down and I even heard you tell her to stay away from the rails so that she wouldn’t get hurt.
I want you to know that I am proud that you are part of my community, and I want to thank you for being kind to my daughter, even though your friends made fun of you for it.
She left the skate park with a sense of pride and with the confidence that she can do anything, because of you.
~ Jeanean Thomas
Editor’s note: This letter was initially circulated via Twitter, but the author submitted it to the Cambridge Times for publication and it has since gone viral.
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my heart broke for all the right reasons. Classy boy. (If I had cross outs I’d cross out “boy” ) and say Classy Man.
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Well done all three of you, you the mother for taking her there, your daughter for being brave and curious and the young gent for recognizing a promising talent and nurturing it.
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Reblogged this on A Grateful Man and commented:
Courage, kindness, and good parenting all in one post!
Russ
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This was wonderful, and as the mother of a (former) skateboarder (now professor) I know he and all of his friends would have been exactly that kind and helpful to a little one-they always helped out the kids at the skatepark or in the neighborhood, and didn’t fit the stereotype most people have of skaters. Great story, thanks for sharing!
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This is marvelous. Thanks for sharing.
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It is teenage boys like him that more teenage boys should strive to be like
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Great story.
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Oh how sweet! 😺
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As I grow old I fear for my Country’s future, but then I see young men like this and think it’ll be OK.
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Beautiful. Thank you for sharing this.
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This is dope, more skaters need to act like this.
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Reblogged this on Mindfulness Meditation & Yoga | Pittsburgh, PA and commented:
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.” Victor Frankl
The space of non-reactivity–even a few moments of it, of pausing–can feel like an eternity of groundlessness, but if we can learn to tolerate that groundlessness, we might be surprised by what arises in the space . . .
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