It’s my birthday, and I’ll Q if I want to

P90 X-Stretch
We Stretched and stretched, and then we stretched some more.
I, for one, was impressed with the limberness of our resident State Trooper!

Jay Jackson was one of my best friends, growing up.  He was instrumental in me becoming a Georgia Tech fan, and even taught me how to drive a stick.  From the time we were in elementary school through our high school years, we played on baseball, basketball, and football teams together.  His mom was my Jr. High English teacher, and his father was my High School baseball coach.  Jay had always struggled with depression to some extent.  In 2004 his father took his own life via a self inflicted gunshot.  I only got down to see Jay once after his father’s passing, and had to go to his mom’s house, as his depression had him not wanting to go out.  It was serious enough that they even tried electric shock therapy.  On a June morning in 2010, I opened my email to a message from another high school friend, who told me Jay had committed suicide two days before.  To make events even more tragic, he had used the same gun his father had used six years earlier.  I immediately began to question myself.  What if I had called more?  What if I had gotten back down there more?  Would Jay have opened up?  Would it have helped?  At the end of the day, I’ll never have answers to those questions, but it does lead me to ask all of you to please open up if you have these feelings.  Men are the worst about expressing themselves, I get that.  I just want every man in this group to know what an extraordinary group you are part of.  I would be willing to bet that every man in this group would be willing to be your sounding board, if need be.  76% percent of all suicides are committed by men.  A lot of that has to do with our ability to communicate our feelings.  If you feel something, say something.