Clearing Madness

So, it's that time of the year when students get their A level results and the battle for uni places begins. There have been stories in the media about A grade students not getting the place they had hoped for. My concern is the importance that is placed on the only future being the one where a student gets the grades they desire and the university of their choice. It is a lot of pressure to put young people under at the start of their future. Some break under the strain and we inevitably hear of students who consider suicide because the alternative future is not the one they had planned. I also see failing students here who feel that they have let themselves and others down if they do not achieve what is somehow subliminally expected of them. I try to tell them that maybe there is a different future ahead or a new path to travel but it is difficult for them to see. My past has not been one of A levels, a university degree and a glittering career. Some of it involved surviving on benefits with two young children. However, I would not change my past as it has made me what I am now. I have a job I enjoy that is rewarding. Maybe we can only appreciate the future we have when it becomes the past we learnt from. I leave you with this quote.

'What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us'

Ralph Waldo Emerson