Sam had a great first day today - -he came home with *the biggest* smile on his face — a smile I hadn’t seen in a very long time. He was so happy that he got to go to school. What a simple and yet profound thing.

His high school’s tradition is for seniors to wear camo pants on the first day and his longtime soccer friend, Charlie, gave him his as Charlie is off to USC in a week or so.

And I called the Bass Center Clinic yesterday on a whim and asked them if they had any camo mask covers for Sam’s painter’s mask and BOOM! They did have 2 so Sam drove over there yesterday and picked them up — completing the “fit” as they say now 😀

Look closely in the car and you’ll see Sam and his friend Grant flashing the 24 sign (as in class of 2024) as they drove away this morning. Sko (a blend of let’s go)  Vikes (that’s their mascot)!

And he also came home saying “my teachers are GREAT” (in all caps) — it makes such a difference to see him in person, I think. I know it’ll humanize these next 1-3 months that he isn’t able to be in class and motivate them to hopefully go the extra mile for him.

And his anatomy teacher is a man I knew in 1998 at Homestead High School where he was a 1st year teacher and I was a 2nd year at that school teacher (5th year over all). He was a very good teacher back then so I can imagine that he’s even better now.

and yes, that little boy is our fearless warrior on his first day of kindergarten.

#FULeukemia

#LFGStemCells

#TeamSamStrong