“I was terrified my classmates wouldn’t see my worth. So, I threw rocks, said ‘bad words,’ and acted tough. The worst, though, is that I befriended kids I knew would let me get away with treating them terribly. I took advantage of them and their effortless kindness. I never want to be the cause of pain for anyone. It’s one of the worst things in the world to feel worthless. I know because I’ve been a bully to myself as well.”
‘I used to be a bully. I was awful, and I wanted so badly to be liked.’: Woman admits to feeling ‘pang of guilt, shame’ at being childhood bully, proud of her ‘efforts to better herself’
‘I went home after my son’s transplant, only to receive an angry letter about the ‘eyesore’ exterior of my home.’: Woman’s son diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, community unites to clean her home in wake of insensitive complaint
“My son kept holding his right side and screaming. They told me he was ‘just constipated’. ‘Constipation shouldn’t be making him scream.’ They thought I was some crazy helicopter mom. The doctor’s response? ‘Well, if it was real pain, you holding and consoling him wouldn’t be making him feel better like it is now.’ Boy, was she wrong. I could feel in my spirit something was wrong with my baby boy.”
‘How many people did you cross today? 5. Maybe 30? It takes 2 minutes to alter someone’s day.’: In wake of mass shootings, mom urges us to take 2 minutes to spread ‘kindness’
“There are people out there longing to feel connected. To feel seen. All it takes is one smile. One hello. Buy a coffee for the person behind you. That waitress busting her butt at the diner? Tip her and tell her how much potential she has. Send that text. We live in times I never wished for my children. I’m not naive to it. But, I refuse to let evil and hate paralyze me.”
‘As my daughter was giggling, bursting with love in the next room, I was learning she wouldn’t be growing up at all.’ Mom’s 18-month-old daughter diagnosed with ‘Childhood Alzheimer’s’
“The phone rang. I grabbed a notepad, a pen, took a deep breath. How do you prepare yourself to answer a call with the results of whether your 18-month-old daughter is going to die? My mind shut off. All the air left the room. ‘Very serious, no cure yet, not sure, lots of research.'”
‘I quickly read it, a tribute to ‘Trenton.’ He was 21 when he died, just a week ago. I instinctively asked her what happened. He had drowned. My heart broke for this woman.’
“In the middle of our conversation, a woman walked up and stood before us. She had tears in her eyes. She simply asked for a favor. ‘We have to leave, and I was wondering if you guys could launch ours for us.’ She didn’t say why she chose us.”
‘Mom, why wasn’t Ryan in school today?’ He kept looking for him, but Ryan was getting ready for his angel wings.’: 10-year-old boy loses best friend to Ewing’s sacroma, starts foundation in his honor to teach cancer patients to fish
“When my son’s best friend passed from cancer, he said, ‘Mom, he spent so much time in the hospital that he didn’t get the chance to be a kid. He didn’t even get to go fishing!’ You see, Jake’s passion is fishing. He’s been doing it since he was 5 and it’s grown to be his absolute favorite activity. ‘Mom, kids fighting cancer should get to fish!’ I told him he should do something about that, and so he did. Ryan made my son feel like he belonged. He wanted to do for cancer patients what Ryan did for him.”
‘I was 13 hours away with $1.32 in my account. Tears in my eyes, I gently opened the door. There was a look of shock on her face. ‘How did you get here?!’
“I wrote, ‘My mom is dying in hospice care and I feel guilty every day I’m not there sitting by her side.’ I awoke to something so unexpected. ‘Alex! Oh my god, Alex!’”
‘We got pregnant before marriage. I was told, ‘Your marriage is going to fail.’ I felt hopeless. I told my husband, ‘I just can’t continue anymore.’
“I felt like I was not giving my children the life they should have. In that moment, I felt trapped. So, my husband went into our bedroom and found the loose change that he had been collecting for a few years.”
‘I was taken in a police car. Alone, I sat in a room overnight. An old friend and unexpected flame circled back into my life. I hesitated to connect with him because of my illness. I wasn’t myself.’
“The next morning, though I was states away, he was waiting in visitation for me in the hospital. I saw the pain in his eyes. When it would have been easy to notice only the illness, he saw me. Even in the darkness, he had hope.”
‘In 1997, at the lowest point in my life, I snapped and bought a gun. I was almost a school shooter.’: Man overcomes abusive childhood, bullying, says ‘kindness’ stopped him from doing ‘the worst thing imaginable’
“When you’ve been told you’re ‘worthless’ enough times, you’ll believe it. I had no home and often slept outdoors. The isolation and bullying became unbearable. I wanted to feel an emotion other than pain. I wanted to feel, for once, like I was in control. If I’d possessed a rifle, I would have been a killer. If I’d known love, I would have never wanted a rifle.”
