Matt’s Story
Joshua was born on Feb 6, 2003. He attended two different parochial schools before moving to a public school in sixth grade. Moving schools and not having your school friends in the same neighborhood made it difficult for him to be accepted by the other kids. Joshua was also a bigger boy for his age, so his parents got him involved in sports growing up.
Baseball, football, soccer, and basketball were just a small group of the sports that Joshua liked to keep up with, which led to his nickname, “The Commissioner”. If you liked a sport or had a team, he had a team or a player in that league that he knew about and would love to talk to you about it. He was active in Cub Scouts followed by Boy Scouts, having progressed to the Life Scout Rank.
Like most kids, Joshua did not feel like he had a lot of friends. He had a small group of “buddies” throughout his school days but felt like he did not have anyone he could reach out to. When Joshua was 8 years old, his parents had him start seeing a therapist. This was the start of a great relationship for Joshua as this therapist would become someone that Joshua could reach out to and felt he could talk to.
Joshua’s lowest point came when one day he went to his school counselor and stated that he did not feel well emotionally. After asking more questions, upon hearing Joshua’s answers, Child Social Services and Joshua’s parents were called. Joshua would end up spending a week in the hospital mental health ward. After being released, Joshua started therapy with a new organization and developed a great bond with the other kids there as well as with the staff. He eventually “graduated” from this therapy organization which was started by his very first therapist.
When Joshua passed away on April 27th, 2019, he was still going to therapy for anxiety and depression. He was also still working on his Eagle Scout project but kept procrastinating as he did not think anyone would come to help him with it. While he was happier than he was in previous years, he was still struggling to be happy with who he was, what he looked like, and how he sometimes acted.
If this sounds like something you are going through, then we want you to know that you are not alone. Many kids and adults today have this kind of story. Joshua knew that he had a long road yet to get to where he wanted to be.
We hope that Joshua looked down and saw everyone that came to his memorial service and heard the great stories some of his friends told his family. It made them happier knowing that their son was not as sad as they thought.