There are a lot of posts floating around regarding how to best COPE with our current quarantine and social distancing. As a teacher, I am naturally most akin to anything linked to students and the classroom experience.
Our hearts go out to all who are mourning the loss of what we all took for granted: getting up every day (too often wishing for a snow day…) to go to school.
Whether it was for the learning, the social element, our caring teacher, lunch or our favorite class… we naïvely assumed it would all be there tomorrow.
Now, faced with such an unknown tomorrow… we are hearing how HARD it is, especially for those who are at LANDMARK MOMENTS on their personal timeline.
Seniors.
Athletes.
Kindergartners.
Future actors and actresses who were to be in their first school musical.
Those that joined their first real team.
Student teachers just days short of being certified.
First year teachers who never dreamed that THIS is where their career would bring them…
All this difficulty and change has me thinking back over the HARDEST MOMENTS of my teaching career, when options were limited and the future looked personally bleak. What did I do? How did I get through?
Certainly, the kindness and support of close friends and colleagues got me over the hurdle. But at the end of the day, it was the PAIN OF CHANGE and how I RESPONDED to it, that made those experiences life-giving and not dead ends…
I believe the youth of today ARE OUR TOMORROW. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, as it’s all how you look at things) we learn those hard lessons by feeling the pain inside, and then looking OUTWARD.
We’ve all seen ‘feel-good’ movies where the protagonist took a difficult situation and creatively found a way to RISE above it.
To our young people especially, who are feeling the social distancing in a way perhaps deeper than many Baby Boomers and Generation X’ers…. Now it’s their turn…
But they do need the village to get there. I believe they have what it takes to BE THE CHANGE. They have many more options awaiting them, than what is right in front of them… It will take our united creativity and selflessness to discover just what these options are…
But right now, we need to BE THERE for our young people that are deeply feeling the distance in a way that only young life can know. They ARE each others’ life lines. And WE are their foundation. Let us recognize their actions and reactions for what they are. We can UNITE in our SUPPORT of them, in order that they can grow through the pain…to begin mobilizing the ideas and life that none of us have even yet realized. I do not know what those ideas are. Nor do I believe that is necessarily my job. My job is to be there; to listen and not judge.
I believe that we will all come out the other end, amazed and empowered by the inner gifts and opportunities that we all have. I for one, look forward to witnessing what embracing this truth will bring.