HOPELESS TO HOPEFUL
Abandoned lunch boxes sat in lockers for weeks growing all sorts of colorful new lifeforms. Stinky PE clothes festered in the locker rooms. Overdue library books racked up the fines. And students wondered when they would roam the crowded halls of their school and see the inside of their classroom again.
The world shut down rather abruptly and you and your teen did not have much time to prepare mentally for it. It seemed a bit surreal and novel at first. And then the reality crept in. Some thought that the shut down might be for a month or two. Maybe for the rest of the school year. But until 2021? Very few really thought that would happen.
But here we are looking at the potential for schools to be entirely online, or a hybrid version where kids get to go to the classroom for a couple of days a week. This is our reality.
Top everything that COVID-19 has gifted us with the difficult social issues that our country is facing, and you have a recipe for hopelessness.
BUT YOU AND YOUR TEEN WILL GET THROUGH THIS.
You might be feeling hopelessness creeping in and you aren’t alone. The emotions of the people in your community, the messaging on social media, watching daily news and being relatively stuck in your home can put a real strain on your mental health. Don’t take this lightly. If you are feeling the strain, the chances are that your teen is feeling it too.
But what can you do? You don’t have control over the schools. You can’t snap your fingers and change our society for the better. You can’t comfort everyone in your community that feels emotionally overwhelmed. You can’t fix everything and make it all better for your teen. So what can you do?
Create opportunities to allow you and your teen to feel helpful, and that will lead to feeling hopeful. Did you catch that? Feeling helpful will lead to feeling hopeful. Helping allows you to see that you have control over your own choices. You are able to assist others. Your actions can create change. It brings about connection.
So don’t allow hopelessness to take over. Make a list of a few ways you can feel helpful and get started.
Some ideas are:
-tutoring a younger student
-making cards for assisted living residents
-sewing masks
-organize a space in your home
-create craft packs for kids in your neighborhood.
The possibilities are endless.
Get your helper hat on because it will get your through this difficult time.
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