One day I was working out at the gym and a friend of mine which was a baseball scout at the moment approached to tell me “Hey I see you are spending a lot of time training this player (I reserve to say the name for privacy). That kid has a lot of problems” I sat down on the bench and continued paying close attention to the scout “His father would hit his mother in front of him. We wanted to sign him but we passed because he might be a higher risk to the organization.” At that point, I undertook the ramifications of domestic violence and what’s worse is how the opportunity to fulfill his dream came to an end not because he wasn’t talented, or he did something wrong but because he was a victim. What the scout didn’t understand was that the reason why this player ran the extra mile, stayed after practice, and pushed harder than everyone else, was because baseball was a way for him to support and protect his mother.
Domestic violence has been a common factor among a lot of young athletes I’ve been blessed to coach and advise and that is why it is so important for me to raise awareness in this matter.
When I decided to pursue my double major in Applied Computer Science, God blessed me again by putting me next to a wonderful kid also with a rough childhood. I was given the most valuable prize in life, someone that looked up to me as a father figure he was missing in his life and I became his Papi to guide him, give him advice, and most importantly to learn from him. The same problem, different industries, and the same goal, “work harder than everyone else to take care of their mothers.”
Although their stories are not mine to tell, I cannot stay quiet and I have to find a way to say STOP DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. This book is just my way.
Jessie inspired me to write, they inspired me to pick the subject.
Jon, Ricardo, Mathew, and Eric thanks for your support and for being my teammate developers. I feel I can build any project because you guys have my back and I am very grateful to have you.
Special thanks to my coach Dan, my iOS instructor Adriana (profe), my CS instructor Alan and backend instructor Dani, without you, this project would be still in my mind living as a dream, you gave me the necessary skills I needed to make it tangible. Thank you so much and thank you Make School and the staff members especially Ian, Jen, Anne, Megan, Jeff, Komal, and the rest of the instructors and the founders Jeremy and Ashu.
Thanks to all of my peers at Make School especially KJ for your collaboration with the tracks and music for the project.
Thanks, Jesus Owins for being the singer and for all your collaboration with the songs I wrote for the project.
Thanks, Steph (@stephreadsalot) for helping with my manuscript and for all your advice.
And thanks to everyone in advance, who dedicated their time to read this book, it means a lot to me and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating this project, Thanks.