(deze blog is geschreven in het engels)
Working as a coach I like to share my ideas about what youngsters encounter in daily life. You could read this blog as a construct of my visions about the current society, and how young people are trying to find a place in this crazy world.
To start of this journey, I will tell you a story about an ordinary Dutch boy and how his careless life would be disturbed in an unimaginable way in the night of 18 May 2005.
Where the story begins
Spring has filled the air, but the cold still goes down as the sky turns slowly black. The boy of our story is watching a movie on tv: an angel falls in love with a pediatric surgeon. As an angel he can’t get in touch with her like humans do, only if he jumps of a tall builing (and becomes mortal). It is a moving lovestory with an unfortunate ending. When the movie is over the boy kisses his mum and dad goodnight and goes to his bedroom. Since early childhood the boy and his older brother sleep in the same bedroom. There were often nights they went fighting with pillows until their mother told them to stop monkeying around and go to sleep. Still musing about the movie, the boy hears the distant sound of howling sirens coming through his bedroom window.
For a few minutes he is concerned about the safety of his brother who hasn’t come home yet. After an hour more pondering, he finally drifts off in a deep sleep. A few hours later the boy wakes up from a high pitched scream. It comes from inside the house. Shocked and confused he stumbles down the stairs to find his mother, father and little sister prostrated on the living room floor. Right next to his kin he sees a policeman. The policeman just stands there, while his father tells the boy with a sad voice what happened that night. ‘Your brother got in an accident…he died’. The boy sinks into the sofa. His mind switching off, as he cryed until there are no more tears to be wept….
Struggling with big questions
Significant life-events have an enormous impact on how young people view the world. Life-events as i.e. graduating from High School, falling in love for the first time or loosing someone you love most, have effect on choices young people make in their lives. More often there are important questions underlying these choices: ‘What do I want to be when I grow up?’, ‘What kind of education will fit my dreams?’ or ‘Am I able to finish my study?’ Today’s youngsters struggle with these questions daily. Therefore, they could feel lost in their choice-making process. What is the right thing to choose? And if you have made a choice, how do you know if it’s the right one?
A need for reflection
Luckily youngsters are quite resilient, and they do not easily quit pursuing their goals. Although some young pioneers are thriving in this era of social media, there also remains a downside for many of them. And that is the feeling of being lost in an overwhelming society of information. I believe there is a need of youngsters to have more space to reflect upon their life-events and their choices. Although education has built in tutorships and teachers who serve as a mentor, the current educational system lacks four necessary and astringent pedagogical values to organize sustainable ways of contemplation about life: self-reliance, responsibility, autonomy and personal development.
Still worrying about the boy? No worries, he turned up to be just fine.
Could you use help in reflecting upon your life-events and what kind of road to take for your future? Schedule here a free coaching session to learn more about how coaching with nature can help you.
