Hey.
It’s been a while.
More motherhood adventures ahead, but first, some fears.
It’s been two excruciating years filled with fears, anxieties, irrational and illogical conundrums and many, many, many “huh?” moments.
I am speaking, of course, about the Covid 19 pandemic. Do you every just sit there and say “What WAS that?”
Was it a reset? A wake up call? A chance for families to explore whether or not they enjoy each others’ company all day, every day without the interruption of anything?
Was it a mental wellness check or a mental illness-incitation?
I don’t know the answer to any of these queries but I do one thing… the IMPACT.
Wow.
It was agregiously anxiety-inducing and incredibly detrimental to youth and children’s mental health.
The stories that are shared with me and the amount of people reaching out to me to share their stories is harrowing and depressing. This pandemic, along with the lockdowns and the divisiveness that the vaccinations caused were impossibly dualistic, hyporcritical and disheartening to the very fibers of our world and our communities, let alone our young, impressionable generation of growing minds and souls.
I have to say this and I am not sure if I will be getting a backlash, but we need to focus less on divisive topics that centre around children’s self-image and place our attention instead on creating an environment where children are celebrated, encouraged, empowered and enriched. A world that disempowers disabilities and differences and instead focuses deliberately on our similiraties and shared values.
A fertile ground for creative genius, healthy debates, respectful discussions, emotional awareness, mental health education and REHABILITATION.
Our kids survived the last two years but they are not unscathed. They are brutally affected.
This was evident in an excercise we did with our students in grades 4-8 last year that challenged them to think of the three types of possible futures (cyber punk, steam punk and solar punk). Instead of exploring different variables of what he future could look like… there were panic attacks, tears, screams, attempts at escape and violent reactions ranging from hopelessness and despair to a complete nervous breakdowns. Students were rushing to the washroom to cry and they were all asking “What’s the point? We are all going to die!”
“What’s the point?”
“We are all going to die!”
Verbatim.
Yeah. So that happened. We had to get a psychotherapist in the school to provide therapy and meditation excercises for our children and youth. My heart still remembers the angst, anguish and unimaginable, intensity of the heightened emotions in the space. It was one of the saddest scenes I have ever witnessed.
Today, we are better. Our students are back to normal and trying to relearn to relate to one another and regain their hopes.
Today we are trying to live without fear again.
Dream again.
Believe again.
We are trying to reestablish trust in our future. Raise and inspire future leaders.
Oh hey, cancel culture, let’s cancel fear. There’s an idea.
Smartignani
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