Hey Ericka,
I hope that today is a good one for you, Tom and Jeremy...
I'm glad that it sounds like Jeremy was able to put his troubles behind him during this trip and I'm looking forward to living vicariously through your cruise...
BLT is on my bucket list of properties to try out...
Just thinking (a dangerous past time I know...
since you mentioned that Jeremy is involved in scouts and 4H... and I know previous poster (sorry on reply page... so I'm not sure who it was...) mentioned karate...I think it's a good idea... but not everyone likes it (we did it for a couple years and David lost interest... it becomes more and more serious)... there are a lot of different martial arts though all with different philosophies... but where I'm going with this is that if Jeremy is interested in any kind of sport... anything... that is a good thing for him to get involved in if for no other reason that it makes you feel comfortable in your own skin... and if you feel comfortable in your own skin... you tend to feel more confident...(there will still be bullies unfortunately but if you feel more confident... well that can only be good...
it doesn't have to be a team sport unless he wants that...(I happen to love baseball so David has played just a little bit of that but what really has been great for him is swimming... Swimming is great for so very many reasons but also you are part of a team and you compete but you are ultimately competing against yourself... There's also track and field stuff and tennis and squash which are also good...(all good if you don't want that big traditional team sport kind of thing)
Basically any thing he might be interested in doing physically is great because for better or worse boy culture is deeply sports oriented and its a common thing... I don't think any boy should have to play a team sport... ie football, basketball, etc. if he doesn't want to but it is helpful to have a physical activity/sport that they pursue... and it puts him in with a tribe of like minded kids who are pursing the same activity...
I know there aren't enough hours in the day but just something to think about...
You should feel great that you have so many awesome supporters here...