It's hard to believe that it's been almost three years since I first introduced you guys to Sebastian. I mean, seriously, the kid is a third grader now!
Here's part of what I said in that first post about Sebastian...
My heart breaks because I know that eventually Sebastian will notice the finger pointing. He will learn, at an early age, that people can be cruel. Whether it is a desperate need to feel better about themselves or for reasons that not even they understand, people will be cruel and Sebastian will be seen as an easy victim.
Well, guys, that day has come. Sadly, Sebastian has met his first bully.
Last night I checked in on Facebook before going to bed and found this post from Sebastian's mom...
Today was the day that I've been dreading and preparing myself for, but you can never really prepare for your child getting bullied. There was a little boy in school who made fun of Sebastian for being the slowest runner in third grade. Sebas has been telling me how he wishes he could run faster and I always tell him that God made him in his perfect image. Sebas said that he walked away and got really sad and went to sit away from everyone else and he felt like crying and the bully followed him to continue to tease and tell how stupid he was. Another little girl came up and stood up for Sebastian and told one of the staff. Thinking of him feeling so hurt and alone really tears me up. I tried to hold back the tears as he told me. I tried so hard to just listen and be strong for him. There were a few moments when I caught myself choking up and I had to look away so he wouldn't see me. I told Sebas that there are always gonna be mean people. They are hurting and when they see people that are happy they get jealous and they hurt you to make themselves feel better. I told him that we can't be perfect or the best at everything we try to do and that he might be the slowest runner in third grade but he has the best heart in the whole school and that I rather have a kid that runs slow, with a beautiful heart than a kid that runs fast with an ugly heart. We prayed for the bully, that God may heal his heart and make him a better person. It hurts to see your kids have someone try and convince them that they aren't good enough. I'm so proud of the little girl that stood up for him. We need more kids like her.
Seriously, how awesome is Sebastian's mom? She said and did all the right things!
She is so much better than I am, because after I read this I wanted to hop on a plane to Los Angeles and bully that bully!
I mean, how could he do that to Sebastian? My favorite person in the whole world is Sebastian. Why would anyone hurt him?
Then I started thinking about the positive in the story.....the little girl in who came to his side. How awesome is she?!? Thank goodness she was there. She's now my second favorite person in the world!
I am having a hard time dealing with the fact that there's nothing I can do to make things better for Sebastian. I don't care how old he gets, in my mind, Sebastian will always be the kid who walked with me to close the playground gate so that he could protect me from monsters and bad guys. I mean, I know that the best thing for him is to bundle him up in love and send him out into the world, but what I really want to do is go back and freeze time so that he never has to cross paths with this kid.
I want to protect his heart and his confidence and his pride. I want to shelter his mom from the pain and helplessness she feels.
I want to do these things, but I can't. We all live in the real world where bad things happen and bad things get said and we have to hope the people we love don't let the bad things get to them. We have to hope that we have bundled them in enough love to protect them from the bad. We have to hope that they believe that they are as wonderful as we know they are. We have to believe that love will always win over hate. And when we have a hard time hoping for and believing in these things we have to fake it until time passes and things get better.
I told Sebastian's mom that he still has people all over the world who love him. I'm going to send my love to him and his mom in the form of cards. (That's what I do when I don't know what else to do.) If you would like to send a card too that would be wonderful. Just send it to me and I promise I'll get it to him.
Sebastian
c/o Ms. Brown's Class
Greynolds Park Elementary School
1536 NE 179 Street
North Miami Beach, FL 33162
His mom's name is Priscilla, if you would like to send one for her. I think she could use a little cheering up now too.
