Impact0819

They’re supposedly the best days of your life, but
few of us would honestly want to relive them.
They are the years in which we have our fi rst
crushes and our fi rst heartbreaks, when the
world begins to open up around us even whilst
our attention is narrowing on exams and academic
success (or not). They are supposed to be carefree
compared with the world of work that is to come, and yet
we know that the mental health of teenagers is just as
fragile, if not more so, than that of adults. In the entirety
of a life our school years are really not that many, and
yet they seem last for ever.
I did my GCSEs 30 years ago this summer and left
school in 1991. I recently was included in a Facebook
school reunion page, and it was so strange to see
photos of people that I hadn’t seen since the late 1980s
now looking so middle aged and yet so familiar. More sobering was
the discovery of the small number who had died since then. Equally
odd is to see my own boys go through secondary school and, in the
case of the history GCSE, studying the same subjects. Not having had
a particularly enjoyable time at school, to walk back into a secondary
school so many years later still raised all sorts of unpleasant emotions
inside of me. Perhaps you have had a similar experience. After all, I
suspect that very few of us really enjoyed our teenage years, even if
nostalgia has varnished our memories.
And if our memories of our years in education seem so mixed now,
then what is it like for the present teenagers negotiating the same
issues as us as well as contending with social media, cyber-bullying and
lifetime of debt if they are to choose to go to university? And to those
who are feeling the pressure, I would offer these words of experience:
Firstly, you don’t defi ne the rest of your life by the age of 18. You don’t
have to have your career sorted by the time that you leave university.
Don’t let anyone pressure you into thinking that the mistakes that you
might make now will be life-defi ning. They almost certainly won’t.
Secondly, growing up takes a lot longer than people used to think.
Legally you’re an adult at 18, emotionally I’d add another ten years on to
that. You don’t have to have it all sussed by the time you leave school.
And thirdly, in Jesus God knew what it was like to be a teenager,
suffering from the same hormonal changes that all of us have been
through. I know that in my less-than-happy school moments
the knowledge that God was with me and understood me
even when I didn’t think anyone else did was a life-saver.
The start of a new school year can be tough for pupils
and teachers alike. I pray that you will know God’s grace
in the classroom in the year ahead.
Rev Toby Hole,
Vicar, St Chad’s, Woodseats
WOODSEATS • SHEFFIELD
August/September 2019
Living and Learning
St Chad’s Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
Church Office: Linden Avenue, Sheffi eld S8 0GA
Tel: (0114) 274 5086
Page 3
email: office@stchads.org
website: www.stchads.org