Thank you, Blake, for bringing some much-needed sunshine into our day.
When 6-year-old Blake Rajahn shows up to his first grade classroom on Monday, he will arrive bearing an uplifting a message for his fellow students.
Blake's mother, Nikki Rajahn, runs a custom personalization business in Fayette County, Georgia, and she asked her son what kind of t-shirt he wanted for his first day of school. He could have chosen anything—his favorite sports star's number, a cool dragon, a witty saying—anything he wanted, she could make.
Blake chose something unexpected—an orange t-shirt with a simple, sweet message for the other kids at his school to see. Five little words that might just mean the world to someone who reads them.
"I will be your friend."
Ouch. My heart.
Rajahn shared the story on her business Facebook page:
"I have to brag on my son. I told him that as a back to school gift, I will make him any shirt he would like. It could have anything—a basketball theme, football, etc. which are all his favorites. He thought a while and said, 'will you please make me a shirt that says "I will be your friend" for all the kids who need a friend to know that I am here for them?' Never underestimate your kid's heart for others! I love my sweet Blake! #stopbullying"
Apparently, such a gesture is typical of Blake. "He has always had a heart for others and is very genuine," his mother told Upworthy. She said she's donating part of the proceeds of her t-shirt sales to the Real Life Center, a non-profit that helps families in need in Tyrone, Georgia, all because of Blake.
"During the summer we had a vacation Bible school that he went to," she said, "and they did a toothbrush and toothpaste drive for the Real Life Center. He came home saying we needed to go to the Dollar Store to get some that night. We told him we would go the next day, but he had to use his money for it. He said that was fine, so we asked how much he would like to spend. He said, 'It's for people who don't have any, right?' We said yes, so he very matter-of-fact said, 'Well all of it!' And he did!"
Rajahn said everyone has been very encouraging and people are starting to order their own version of the t-shirt with "#blakesfriends" added to it.
She also shared Blake's reaction to hearing that his shirt idea was starting to spread on Facebook—and again, it's just the sweetest darn thing.
"Ever since I posted about my son and his shirt, I have sold some and told Blake about it. He said, "Oh good! Now more and more people are going to have more and more friends!" He is just so flattered so many want to be his twin too 😊"
Sometimes all a person needs is one friend so they won't feel alone, and Blake going out of his way to make sure kids feel welcomed by him is an example even adults can learn from. If we all reached out to people who might be shy or who might feel excluded, and let them know in some small way that we are open to being friends, what a better world we could build.
Thank you, Blake, for bringing some much-needed sunshine into our day.
This article originally appeared on 8.2.19
She had lived in foster care and didn't want it for the newborn with no name.
Christie Werts and her son, Levi
Christie and Wesley Werts have taken the idea of a blended family to the next level. When the couple fell in love five years ago and married, they brought together her children, Megan and Vance, and his children, Austin and Dakota.
As of January, the Ohio family has five children after adopting young Levi, 2. Levi is the son of Wesley’s ex-wife, who passed away four days after the child was born. The ex-wife had the boy prematurely, at 33 weeks, and died soon after from drug addiction and complications of COVID-19.
When Levi was born, he was a ward of the state with no first name or birth certificate.
“When I heard about Levi, without hesitation, I said we should take him,” Christie said, according to The Daily Mail, and her reason went far beyond the fact that the child was the half-brother to two of her recently adopted children. “I myself was a foster kid and, although for the most part, I had a great experience, I did not want him going to foster care,” Christie said.
@cjthemom5 Replying to @Journey♥️ Yes, they will always know of her and ill be there for every emotion good or bad. But im also mom, ive been to every game, every doctors appt, sat with them if they needed an ear loved unconditional . I am mom also. #adoption #srorytime #siblings #foryou #loveislove
Before the family knew of Levi’s birth, Christie had a recurring dream about a blue-eyed, blonde-haired boy.
"Before Levi, we had wanted to try to have a child of our own," she told Newsweek. "I'm in my forties, so we knew that we would probably need fertility treatment, so I thought let's just think about it and what will be will be."
The problem was that Levi was in Texas, so the family sold their house and moved to the Lone Star State to go through the arduous adoption process. The situation was further complicated because Levi’s biological father had parental rights even though he had substance abuse problems. The family couldn’t move out of Texas until his rights were legally terminated.
But after a 16-month process, in January 2023, Levi became a legal family member. Christie understands that adopting her husband’s ex-wife’s baby may seem unusual to some people. "It's a lot to process for a lot of people, but honestly, it seems a lot crazier than it was. At the time, it just made sense," she said.
@cjthemom5 Our adoption is official !!! after 17 months!!! #adoption #son #loveyou #ourstory#foryou #fyp
Even though Christie knew in her heart that she must adopt Levi, she wasn’t without reservations. “'If I said I did not [have concerns beforehand], that would not be honest,” she told The Daily Mail. “This was different—I was going to walk into a child I never met and was worried the circumstances would hinder this instant love. But [...] he stole my heart. I also felt this intense need to protect him.”
These days, Levi fits right in with the family, and the rest of the kids are happy to be back to living an everyday life without any caseworkers or inspections.
“He's great, he is the king of the house! We are all very close. He won't understand the journey right now, but someday, I will let him know we fought for him!” Christie said.
This article originally appeared on 8.31.23
"How your mind stays young while your body starts to slow down."
A woman contemplating aging
Many of us feel invincible when we are young, believing we can control the aging process so that we’ll always stay forever young, as Bob Dylan once sang.
But there’s a moment when everyone realizes aging is an inevitable process and that, eventually, we will have to deal with a slow decline in our physical and, quite possibly, mental capabilities. This realization and understanding that we won’t be here forever can profoundly change one’s perspective on life.
Even though aging is inevitable, studies show how we think about the process can significantly impact our longevity. People with a positive view of aging live an average of 7.5 years longer than those without.
Things happen as we age that are impossible to describe to younger people. However, a group of Redditors did an excellent job of explaining the truths about aging that they were not “prepared” for in a recent thread that made a lot of people feel seen. A user named sofiagympixie asked the AskReddit forum, “What’s a truth about aging that no one prepared you for?” and it received over 2,700 responses.
A big takeaway is that many people feel like they stop mentally aging at a certain point, usually in their late 20s. Still, the continued physical aging they experience makes them feel like they cannot relate to the person in the mirror.
Here are 17 of the most profound responses to the question: What’s a truth about aging that no one prepared you for?
1. There is an end
"You start to realize the older you get that the end is closer than the beginning and you still feel like you have so much more to do."
"That moment where you start to get a sense that there is an end."
2. It takes energy to keep everything afloat
"No one prepared me for how much energy and time it takes to maintain everything—like health, relationships, and just staying organized. It’s way more work than I expected!"
3. Mind/body detachment
"How your mind stays young while your body starts to slow down. You still feel like the same person you’ve always been, but suddenly you notice little things changing."
"This was such a surprise to me. I really expected to feel psychologically older as I aged. But physically, oh my body has betrayed me... Eyes... hair (gray, but at least I still have it)... back... knees... hips... prostate."
4. The past feels closer than it is
"When you get a flashback of a good memory and you realize that was over 10 years ago."
"When I told my daughter about something I did 24 years ago, I had to pause for a moment."
Time flies isn't just a saying. Psychologists agree that our minds lump time together based on novel experiences. When we are older, the days are a lot more similar than when we were young children. That's why when you're 80, time moves a lot faster than it did when you were 8.
5. Stuck in the wrong time
"I’m 61, and sometimes I feel like this world is not for me anymore. I feel almost like an imposter. For example, I can’t find clothes I like that fit correctly, TV is abhorrent, only old music sounds pleasant, shoes are uncomfortable, I don’t recognize most celebrities or famous people in the news or tabloids, and I don’t understand the need for most new and supposedly exciting products. I’m an educated person, I still work and have an active life. I’m not a recluse. But a little at a time, I feel the world is moving on without me. I finally understand why, in her final years, my mother only watched movies from the 1950s and reminisced about the past more than she talked about the present. Her world was long gone."
6. You lose friends
"If you choose not to have kids, you may end up losing your friends. I turn 40 this year, and my partner and I don't see many folks these days. Parents like to hang out with other parents. And I don't have a grudge, I totally see the value for playdates, etc. But it can be a little lonely."
"To be fair, I have 2 kids and lost a lot of friends because we simply don’t have the time/energy to connect regularly enough to maintain a healthy friendship. It instead falls into an awkward acquaintance stage where enough time passes between communication, and you’re not sure if reaching out to connect comes across weird."
7. Your parents are aging, too
"It's not just you who is getting old. Your parents are getting even older."
"I feel this. Lost my mom 2 weeks before my 21st birthday. 40 now with 2 kids. I get angry/sad at a lot of milestones like my wedding and kids' stuff ‘cause my mom was robbed of them, and I was robbed of her."
8. Time wasted caring about other people's opinions
"It’s so freeing when that old twinge of 'why don’t they like me' pops up, and then I remember that I can not be bothered by that anymore, and magically, I don’t care!"
"Just wasting time in general. No thanks. I want to do as many things as possible!"
9. Your friends die
"Your friends start to die. It's something I never thought about."
10. Time flies
"Man. I don’t even feel like the days are long anymore. I just keep blinking and the weeks go by."
"Yup, wake up, eat breakfast, do a couple things. Wait, it’s lunch already? Eat lunch, do a couple more things, time to prep dinner. Eat dinner, clean up, fix a few things, it’s 9 pm. I guess it’s almost time to get ready for bed? This times 10,000 for me."
11. The monotony sets in
"You will realize that you hate planning meals and making food every single day. It's boring, and it's too easy to fall into monotony. But you have to make lunch again and then plan for dinner again then make dinner again and what do you want to eat tomorrow so you plan for breakfast tomorrow and get up and make breakfast again and then plan for lunch again...."
12. You become invisible to much of society
"I wondered what felt off the last year. Gen Z is everywhere now, and I'm still asking myself when that happened."
13. Adults aren't real
"When you're a kid, you can't wait to 'grow up,' and then you do, and you're still you, just older. That voice inside your head doesn't change, but what you see in the mirror does. Only now you're just older and saddled with bills and stress and all of life's 'surprises.' On top of this, everyone is winging it. Absolutely everyone. Because the idea of order and a civilized society is an illusion. We're all playing by made up rules and making imaginary money and all the rest of it. A one-dollar bill costs just as much to print as a hundred-dollar bill."
14. Priorities change
"Things that seemed so important when you were younger, really are not important."
15. Younger people's reverence
"I'm middle-aged, and a funny thing is how younger people get self-conscious or apologize when there is no need. For example, they will apologize for swearing around me or mentioning something like (gasp) drinking, or drugs, or sleeping around. I think it's funny. Why would being on earth longer make me easier to scandalize? I've seen and done things that would shock them, lol, but to them I'm a very proper-looking classy older lady."
16. Ageism
"Doors start closing once you reach a certain age."
"Ageism is real. I just turned 50 and am in a young person's career (software development). I feel how hiring managers look at me when asked to turn my camera on, during an interview that was going very well and suddenly it's 'we'll get back to you.'"
17. It all catches up
"Things like drinking, eating unhealthily, smoking, spending ... they will catch up. When you're young you think you're different, or you think that when it does catch up you'll be old so who cares, I won't care when I'm old anyway. You will care, though. You'll still be you. Those things won't seem like an issue right up to the moment they are. And then it's too late to take them back."
Her viral video sparked a debate as to whether or not providing school supplies should be mandatory for parents.
A zero grade for not providing school supplies?
The debate as to whether or not parents should supply classroom supplies is not new. But as prices continue to rise, parents are growing more baffled as to how they can be expected by teachers to provide all the various glue sticks, colored pencils, rulers and other various items the incoming students might need.
What’s even more perplexing, however, is penalizing the children of parents who won’t (or can’t) provide them.
This was the case for Shanitta Nicole, who discovered her son received a zero grade in his new school for not bringing school supplies for the entire classroom.Nicole was especially surprised by this reaction since she had already gone through the effort of making sure her son had every supply he needed from the school’s list, which was slightly different than the one they previously had.
And yet, the 7th grade teacher informed her son that he was still expected to provide for the classroom, not just himself. And, thus, a zero grade, for failing the assignment, so to speak.
Even though Nicole thought the rule was “weird,” she went out and bought the bulk items, which included tissues, Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, pencils, Expo markers, and red pens.
And yet, the next week—her son still has a zero. Concerned, Nicole emailed her son’s teacher.
“I’m like, ‘hey…my student has a 83 in the class and everything else in the class is 100s and 98s and he still has a zero for something called ‘classroom supplies.’” she said in a video.
“‘We bought the supplies anyways, but I don't feel like it's the parents' responsibility to supply your classroom. And I definitely don't think it's appropriate to assign a grade to students based off of whether or not they've supplied your class with supplies. That doesn't make any sense.’”
@shanittanicole Am I doing too much? #fyp #school ♬ original sound - Shanitta Nicolee 💖
And while Nicole’s email did get the teacher to reconcile the grade, there was no mention to her other concern regarding the responsibility for parents to provide the entire class with supplies.
“So, I emailed the principal because I just, I might be extra, but I just want to see what's going on. Why do I have to buy supplies for the classroom?” the frustrated mom concluded.
Nicole’s video quickly went viral on TikTok, and several weighed in to agree that the teacher’s actions were misguided.
“That is so unfair!! Especially for the kids whose parents CANT afford groceries let alone classroom supplies,” one user wrote.
Another added, “You are not wrong. It is 100% ok for [the teacher] to ask for supplies, but mandate it for a grade? Absolutely not.”
And this point is truly what Nicole took umbrage with, as she noted several times in the comments. It has less to do with being asked to help and more to do with her son’s grade depending on it.
In a follow-up video, Nicole shared that the school principal did end up reaching out, notifying her that while, yes, teachers are allowed to ask for donations, it should never be mandated.
@shanittanicole Replying to @yafavv._.dancer😍😘💞😍😍💞 Graded Supplies Update #fyp #school ♬ original sound - Shanitta Nicolee 💖
“What the teacher was trying to accomplish, but it definitely wasn't appropriate,” the principal told Nicole.
While the teacher might have not handled this situation in the best way, it goes without saying that this is a larger systemic issue—one that isn’t exactly fair to parents, teachers and students alike.
Most public school teachers spend a significant amount of their own money on classroom supplies, to an average of $673 per year, according to a recent survey of more than 1,100 educators by the Association of American Educators (AAE). That number only goes up for teachers in high poverty schools.
At the same time, according to a 2022 survey with Savings.com, the typical parent also spends nearly $600 on school supplies. Plus things like clothes, backpacks, haircuts etc.
In the grand scheme of things, there’s no use placing full responsibility or blame onto teachers or parents. Because either way, students get caught in the crossfire. This is clearly a universal burden that needs attention.
This article originally appeared on 10.5.23
It's not inspiration porn. It's elite athletics.
I recently saw someone say that the Olympics are the warm-up for the Paralympics.
After tuning in to some of the coverage, I have to say — they're right!
Research from the UK's Channel 4 showed more people tend to tune in to the Paralympics to see people overcoming their disabilities than to watch exciting sports competition.
While it's great that folks are watching (in record numbers, in fact), respectfully, they've got it all wrong.
When you really sit down and watch some of the competitions, you start to realize that the Paralympics is anything but an afterthought — it is, in its own right, a display of world-class athleticism and skill, not to mention diversity and community and inclusiveness.
Here are some of the most incredible feats from the Paris games so far.
Blind football, or blind soccer, is a sport that bears a lot of resemblance to the football/soccer we're used to, except its modified for the visually impaired.
All the participants compete on an even playing field by wearing full black-out masks and must navigate the pitch using only their other senses.
A video of a penalty kick posted by NBC recently took Twitter/X by storm.
It's impossible to emphasize how difficult this is.
You just have to watch Sheetal Devi, a 17-year-old from India, nail a perfect bullseye in Para archery. You must see it with your own eyes.
She's the only woman with no arms competing in the games, and the extraordinary display of athleticism as she uses her feet, shoulder, and mouth to fire an arrow is truly hard to believe.
A video of Polish high jumper Łukasz Mamczarz went viral on Reddit this week, and it's easy to see why.
It's an astounding display of power and coordination as Mamczarz chose to compete without a prosthetic.
from nextfuckinglevel
Sadly, Mamczarz did not medal in the event. However, American high-jumper Ezra Frech won Gold with a Paralympic world record of 1.94 meters!
American Samantha Kingborn brought home the gold with an amazing performance in her 100m final.
She completed the race in 15.64 seconds — an astonishing speed to achieve with arm power alone!
(Seriously, just look how fast the athletes are moving by the end. Wow!)
Not to continue piling on poor RayGun, but you don't need a PhD to know that these breakdance athletes are just on another level.
(Full disclosure: This group, Ill Abilities, performed their routine at the 2024 Olympics — breakdancing was controversially excluded from the Paralympics this year.)
Check out the casual backflip done on one leg!
Paralympic athletes aren't just changing the game on the court or field. The games are also pushing the boundaries for how we can watch and consume sports.
TikToker Lucy Edwards recently shared the brilliant device used at the Paralympic games that allows visually impaired fans to follow along while watching goalball — another sport played completely blind that requires complete silence, as the athletes need to focus on hearing bells inside the ball.
These tactile magnet boards, called Vision Pads, allow people in the audience to follow all the action without the need for announcers.
@lucyedwards I am still so emotional I was able to do this… I have never had an experience this inclusive with a live event. I came out of the arena and cried like a baby. Vision Pad you are amazing. [PR Event with @Channel 4 @paralympics ] #Paralympics #ParalympicsC4 #AccessibleSport #Sport #Goalball
Meanwhile NFL games can't get basic closed captioning right half the time.
It's time to ditch the idea that the Paralympics are an inferior athletic product, or that the level of competition is somehow watered down from the Olympics.
Thinking of the games as a way for athletes to overcome their disabilities drastically underestimates them as athletes.
Take the time to watch the events and you'll be absolutely astonished with what you see. Not to mention incredibly entertained!
