The Force is with all of us.

Back in November, blogger and adoptive mother Carrie Goldman found herself consoling a bullied child. With the rash of teen LGBT suicides, one might not be surprised. However, Carrie's daughter, Katie, was not a teenager being bullied for her sexuality. Katie, an adorable first-grader, was being bullied for having a Star Wars water bottle. Hoping to give her daughter some words of encouragement that weren't strictly parental, Carrie invited her readers to leave comments on her blog reminding Katie that being different is okay and that Star Wars is in no way "just for boys." The response to Katie's story was so overwhelming that Carrie had to shut down comment posting on that post and redirect her readers elsewhere to hare their stories.

As with most blog-related causes these days, this one was granted a day of observance on Facebook. So welcome, friends, to Support Star Wars And Geek Pride For Katie Day. Today, anyone who wants to support Katie is encouraged to show geek pride in any way they can and, at the request of Katie's parents, donate toys to a charity. Today, I am proudly participating by wearing one of my two Star Wars t-shirts (I may change halfway through the day, JUST FOR FUNSIES!).

I also want to participate by sharing a letter to Katie, as I feel Katie and I endured similar experiences as children.

So hello, Katie. My name is Kait and I love Star Wars. I've loved everything about the Star Wars universe since I was a very little girl. The characters, the creatures, the grand adventures, it's all so much fun! When most girls my age were memorizing the lyrics to popular songs on the radio, I was memorizing the number of the trash compactor that Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewbacca jumped into to escape Imperial Stromtroopers (if memory serves me correctly, it is 32638something7). Because of this, I had a hard time making friends and connecting with the other girls in my class.

I don't remember the kind of direct teasing that you have experienced, but I do remember feeling very out of place. No one wanted to talk about how brave Luke Skywalker was. No one appreciated the Yoda puppet that my parents topped our Christmas tree with. It was very lonely to be a Star Wars fan and a 10-year-old girl. What I want you to know is that even though I felt lonely as a kid, that loneliness did go away. By junior high, I had made friends with boys who liked Star Wars almost as much as I did. This must seem like a long time to wait, so my advice is this: don't wait. Don't put off happiness. Don't try to change who you are to please your classmates. I guarantee that if other kids can't appreciate you the way you are, they are going to make really lame friends. If you want to carry around a Star Wars water bottle, do it with pride! You are so blessed to have a unique personality and wonderful, supportive parents who allow that personality to thrive.

Katie, I wish that I could meet you and give you the biggest hug and show you all the of the Star Wars stuff that I have collected in my life. I want to tell you that to me, you're like a real-life Yoda: an amazing inspiration in an unexpectedly small package. I want you to know that as girls, we can be girly and geeky. But most importantly, I want you to know that being true to yourself is the most important skill you can ever have. It's a skill that no bully can ever take away and I hope that someday you realize how impressive a human being you are to say you had that skill as a first-grader.

So stay strong, stay true to yourself, and remember that The Force will be with you. Always.

You are loved.

The recent suicide of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi has gotten under my skin, as I'm sure is the case with many individuals.  I've been trying to figure out how to blog about this all day and there's just so much about this incident that has me riled up.  Every facet of this news story is absolutely heartbreaking, but what saddens me the most is that a young man was driven to take his own life.

I didn't know Tyler, but there is a part of me that wishes I could have given him a message.  It is the message that I wish I could give to every human being who feels themselves teetering towards suicidal ideations.

I want everyone to know that other people can be mean.  Seriously, people suck, but I like to believe that they don't intend to be.  Everyone has difficult things in their lives and everyone deals with these things in different ways.  I may not be a bully, but I can admit to being a snippy, sarcastic, mean bitch when I have too much on my mind.  I honestly believe that bullies are not bad people, just people in pain.  Being the target of girl-bullying as a child, I know that it is a painful and confusing ordeal to go through.  As I got older, I encouraged myself to show sympathy for the bully, wondering what in their life made them act that way.  I'll be honest, it doesn't make the situation sting any less, but it can be helpful to remember that being bullied probably has very little to do with you and everything to do with the bully.

I want everyone to know that even the most seemingly unbearable parts of life are worth living.  It is imperative that we look at our difficulties in life and use them to make us stronger.  I know that sometimes it can feel like life just keeps piling on more and more garbage, but we must march forward.  We must remember that each day is a new chance to prove to whatever it is that's trying to keep us down that we won't be broken so easily.  You know that feeling you get when you accomplish something totally cool like beating a difficult video game or completing a truly epic puzzle (or whatever task-related hobby you indulge in)?  Take a minute to really think about that feeling and hold on to it.  Now imagine that you're getting that feeling because you survived.  It really is worth it, I promise.

Above all, I want everyone to know that they are loved.  I know that sometimes we can feel like we are alone, that no one has our back or even that no one cares.  I promise you that you are wrong.  Trust me when I say that if something happened to you and you were no longer on this Earth, you will be missed.  You cannot imagine the impact that your absence will have on other people.  This is something I did not learn until I lost two friends to suicide.  I had never been terribly close to them; they were far closer to my sister.  I think about them every day and they probably never could have imagined that I would be heartbroken by their deaths.  If I could only give one nugget of love & wisdom for the rest of my life, it would be that each and every person in the world is loved and will someday be missed.

Love your self, love your life.