Last month, 7-year-old Noah Speck decided he would forego the usual t-shirt he wore to first grade at a Katy elementary school and wear a jacket and tie to class.
“It made me feel happy,” he said.
When he walked into class, some fellow students had a different reaction.
“They started teasing me,” he said. “And it made me sad.”
His mother Emily Speck posted her own reaction on Facebook.
“It breaks your heart to hear your confident 7-year-old say this after being so excited about his outfit this morning,” she wrote.
Noah had told her he would never wear his jacket and tie again because of the classmates’ reaction.
Her Facebook post had several hundred comments, from people urging Noah to be confident in who he is.
Encouraged, Noah wore the jacket and tie he said he considered putting in the closet permanently.
“I told them, ‘I’m me,'” he said about returning to class the next day. “And to deal with it.”
It worked.
It also resulted in a surprise delivery Monday afternoon. Good Morning America host Michael Strahan was messaged by one of the Speck family friends, who knows him, and asked about perhaps sending some suits to Noah.
When he returned home from school, a pair of suits tailored to his size were waiting, with a handwritten note from Strahan who said he heard Noah was a sharp dresser
He wore the navy blue suit Thursday to school, as well as a gray hat.
“He taught us all a lesson,” said parents Jake and Emily. “To be confident in yourself, and stand up for what you are. And do it in a respectful way.”
It’s something adults take decades to learn, taught by a little boy, who can’t wait to wear his charcoal gray suit to class.
