Pride

When I got home from work today, Lila hurried me upstairs where she'd spread her school papers across my bed. She couldn't wait to show me she'd won an award. The school mascot is a lion, so students can win these P.R.I.D.E (positive attitude, respect, integrity, diversity and excellence) awards. The paper had the "D" circled with a note that read "Lila always makes sure everyone is included in the game or activity that they are doing." She also got a lion pencil as part of her prize.

"That's wonderful," I told her, my mom pride swelling over a simple pencil and a slip of paper.

I remembered years ago that Marshall's first-grade teacher had said something similar about him, something to the effect of "He so nice--to everyone."

Downstairs, I found Marshall sitting on the edge of his bed in his room, a rarity for that time of day. It's the in-between week between football and basketball season, and I wasn't expecting to see him. He told me his girlfriend had just broken up with him. Lila was hovering in the doorway, so I told her to go play. I gathered as many details as he wanted to give and then launched into a different kind of mom pride--"You are awesome and talented and smart and so nice--to everyone--and, hey, are you hungry?"

I tried to remember what a high school break-up is like. If memory serves, my 11-grade self spent the evening in my room eating Snickers bars and watching the VHS version of "Beaches."

And, even though it was a school night, I let him go hang out with his best friend, who would build up his confidence in a way that I couldn't. He took his math homework with him, left for a couple hours, came home early, showed me the completed worksheets and said, "I need to go change my relationship status on Facebook."

And I tried act all casual and said, "Oh, OK, cool."

But, I wanted to say, "Hurry! The first person to change the relationship status on Facebook after a break-up wins! Way to go, son!"

I also wanted to tell him that I was proud of him for seeking the company of friends during a tough time (circle the "P"), for texting me while he was out to let me know he was OK (circle the "R"),  for refusing to say an unkind word about his ex-girlfriend (circle the "I") and for doing his homework (circle the "E") tonight. This kid deserves a few lion pencils.