Uncertain Times

 M any of the young people who participated in this project have had to cope with extremely difficult circumstances during lockdown over the last year and a half. All of them had to put their lives on hold, no matter what personal challenges they were experiencing.

A few months ago, one of my former students, Alex, reconnected with me again. She told me that, during lockdown, her class was assigned a project in which they had to film six seconds of something beautiful every day. This, they were told, would be a huge help to their mental health. Alex told me that it made her angry. A key year of her life had been taken away. Six seconds of pretty things could not diminish the uncertainty and the loss.

 Alex told me: “I think only the kids who had their key year taken away will really know what that felt like – to not know whether we could write our exams or would have to rely on predictive grades, to not know if we were going to graduate, to not know if we would get a prom, to not know whether universities would be accepting students – all of that is not a stress that anyone can understand other than the students who went through it. It was a really scary time in our lives. “

 So, Alex made a different film which she called “Uncertain Times”. (see above)