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YouDay: The love of Thomas Edison's mother

Coach LaMonte says we can learn from how Edison's mother protected him from negativity, and how we can see the truth others often can't

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — One day, a young Thomas Edison came home from school and gave a letter to his mother. He told her, “My teacher gave this to me and told me to only give it to my mother.”  As his mother began to read the letter her eyes began to swell with tears. Overcome with emotions she read the letter to a young Thomas: “Your son is a genius. This school is not advanced enough and doesn’t have enough good teachers to teach him. Please teach him yourself.” Thomas, after hearing these words grew with excitement and expectation, and those words motivated and inspired him.

Many years later his mother passed away. At his mother's home, packing away her belongings, he stumbled upon the folded letter written by his teacher. He read the letter but this time its contents did not sound like what he heard when he was young. The letter stated: “Your son is mentally ill. He can no longer attend our school. He is expelled.”  His mother did a great job by keeping the negative from his ears and replacing it with what was possible for him.

Edison became one of the greatest inventors of all time because he became the words he heard the first time. What would've happened, and what would we lack today, if Thomas heard the true context of the letter? His mother's boldness to replace the words was the might to prepare him for destiny. Just because someone may believe something about you doesn't mean they are correct; it means they missed it. My friend- you are more than enough. Become what you just heard. Go be great like Edison. 

-Coach LaMonte

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