Have you ever watched a TV series where every single episode ended in a cliff-hanger situation that left you thinking the hero might not make it? The tension is enormous.
But what if you waited until the show eventually ended, so you could watch the whole series all at once? You see, when you know the series will last for many more episodes, you’re not too worried about whether or not the hero will make it out of a tension-filled crisis. Each episode is not the end of the story.
When the future is uncertain, the world appears to be out of control, and especially when there is fear, it might seem like our story is like that cliff-hanger – hard to navigate, and you feel like you are literally holding your breath.
We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, or the next day, but that doesn’t mean we live without hope. Hope is like that extended tv series – it’s future oriented. To actually live with hope in the middle of a crisis like the one the world is currently experiencing, you have to change your perspective. You have to live in the light of a much bigger picture.
If we look at this bigger picture, at our children – their stories are just beginning, just being formed. There might be tension, even crisis, hopefully joy, but there’s so much more to come. I was listening to a recent podcast on the long-lasting effects of the current crisis the world is navigating, with particular reference to how it will impact the students of this era.
Looking back at world history, crisis is a time where resilience is built; where people consider what is most relevant and most important; and where character is forged and life skills are developed.
For our students, as custodians of their and future generations, having navigated a unique and impacting crisis such as the one we are experiencing, it is predicted that they will take on that much needed resilience, that creative sense of adaption and the resourcefulness to do things a little bit differently where needed. They will develop as a collective, the broader life skills as a community that may improve life for us all, and in doing so, create an innovative future that is highly responsive to change and with lasting social impact.
Now that’s hope to aspire to, that’s hope to really encourage – and that’s how we need to see our MBC students. They have the capacity within them, through this current journey, to learn, to adapt and change, and determine a really hopeful future – because we will all depend on that someday.
If it’s been a tough few weeks, part of the message is that this is not the end of the story. We don’t exactly know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future. Maybe this is not the year you thought you’d have, but nevertheless I think we have much to feel hopeful about – we have great students here at MBC and they will be uniquely positioned, along with those of their generation, to learn the lessons and improve our world, hopefully even surpassing what we can perceive.
So let’s not panic – there’s enough of that in the world right now. Forget possible learning gaps, or what we’ve lost, or who is right or wrong; and let’s focus on hope, on words like resilience, creative adaption, resourcefulness, innovation and social impact. Let’s make sure we are speaking those words over our children. This might just be the hallmark of this generation of students who will take the lessons learned and improve all of our futures. That’s a hope to aspire to.
Written by Tracy Holmes, Senior School Principal
