In front of all of her friends…
Grace usually gets to go home early, but today she decided to roll the dice on an assembly happening after her required hours. The reasons why kids want to leave school are more complicated than the convenient answer of apathy. “My mom will probably die before I graduate.” While being hugged by 3 of her friends, Grace wept as she chose to share her reality. Her mother has stage 4 breast cancer and the possibility of losing her is hard to say out loud. Grace wrote this Promise Card…
According to the Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model, 1 in 13 kids in the United States will experience the death of a parent or a sibling by age 18. What resiliency skills do schools teach us for enduring hardships like these? Where is the lesson plan for that? That is the focus of #becauseisaidiwould and our work in schools: Resiliency skills.
Grace and all of the students at her school are receiving because I said I would t-shirts because of our donors who have done Facebook Fundraisers for their birthdays. Thank you for your generosity and sacrifice.
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Promise Cards at a Wedding 🙂
Juan has been a supporter of Because I said I would. since 2014. On his wedding day, he used Promise Cards to express his vows to his wife and vice versa. “These promise cards are displayed in our house to remind us each day of our commitment to each other,” Juan told us. Fast forward to today and Juan has lots of promises to keep as a dad 🙂
Fun thought: We will be hosting the big promises like these (weddings) at our new 92-acre headquarters: camp.becauseisaidiwould.org.
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“I was writing my letter saying my goodbyes…”
“I made a promise to myself that I would take mental health seriously after my father passed away in 2009 as a result of suicide. I was in a dark place then but knew I needed to pull through, I just didn’t know how I would do that. In October 2021, my 10-year-old son expressed suicidal ideations. Yes, 10-year-old. While we haven’t talked about suicide directly, he does know that his grandfather and grandmother died because they hurt themselves. Hearing my 10-year-old express these thoughts, the pressure of work and completing my MBA, completely overwhelmed me. I broke. I was back in that deep dark hell contemplating my own value and debating the next big choice that needed to be made.
As I was writing my letter saying my goodbyes to my family, I was ready. I didn’t have a care. I didn’t care who I would hurt, as I thought it would be better for everyone that I was gone. I finished writing the letter, purposely saved it and left it open on my phone, and took off all the passwords and security on my phone. I took a deep breath. I paused.
I thought about the promise I made to myself in 2009. I sent the letter to my wife and told her I needed help. I wanted help. I made a commitment to myself, her, and my 2 kids that I would get the help I need. We have all been in therapy since then and have been working to become happy and healthy. Some days are harder than others, but the hardest days are behind us. We have learned how to share our emotions and process the things that trigger unwanted thoughts.
I owe a lot to ‘because I said I would’ as I heard Alex speak at one of our corporate meetings. I renewed my promise to myself and because of that, I am still here today. I’m here because I said I would. I’m helping my kids because I said I would.”
– Jeffery, a supporter who submitted their promise story through our website. Fight the good fight, Jeffery. Here is a list of suicide hotlines around the world.
If you would like to share your promise story with us, you can share text, audio or a video here.
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Stay tuned for our next newsletter with more updates about Camp because I said I would!