Life moves at a pretty hectic pace, and sometimes we don’t stop often enough to ‘smell the roses’, so to speak. This is particularly true when it comes to our loved ones – have we told them often enough how much we appreciate them?
One person who has captured the importance of love and appreciating family is Marc Mero – a retired professional wrestle who has dedicated the past few years to promoting positive life choices in schools around America.
A powerful speech of Mero’s, dedicated to his mother’s memory and how she shaped his life, has gone viral after moving an entire school assembly to tears.
Recalling some of his fondest memories of his mother, Mero told the auditorium of students: “The greatest gift my mother ever gave me? She believed in me.”
He went on to reveal how, when he was in his teens and hanging out with the wrong crowd, his mother would insist on staying up until he got home. All she wanted was to make sure that he ‘got home alive’ – even though it got on his nerves.
Mero became visibly emotional as he remembered finding out that his mother had passed away, and how all he could do was apologise to her for, at times, taking her for granted.
In an address that has been viewed over 11 million times, Mero sent out this message that everyone can take on board: “If you have a mother or a father, tell them how much you love them. See, my whole life was about being rich and famous – that’s all I cared about; I had to win the race…That’s not how it’s intended to be. Life is not about winning the race; life is about finishing the race.”
Mero finished his piece by encouraging the emotional students to be kinder to one another, and to appreciate what is truly important in life – family, friends and our experiences with one another.
