During the first few weeks of school, many students walk around with ice packs attached to their limbs with cling wrap. It is clear to all that these students have been working hard to get back into shape for their athletic teams, and that the process has not been perfectly smooth. We respect their determination, and we know by sight to make room for their temporary strains.
I have often wished there were a way to do this for non-physical strains, which are also abundant at the start of the school year. School life is rough-and-tumble, and not just to the body. There are academic challenges that throw us: the reading you can’t begin to understand, the problem you can’t figure out, the unexpected low grade on an assignment. There are social challenges: the friend group you can’t penetrate, the roommate you thought you understood but clearly don’t, the unwise thing you said that has now made you a temporary pariah. And there are bruises to the ego: the tryouts or auditions that didn’t end well, the game you were pulled from before you could redeem yourself, the teacher who doesn’t indulge your extensive digressions from the subject at hand.
Usually, the combination of last year’s school experience and students’ summer experiences of camp, job or travel equip them with a level of resilience that can get them past the rough spots. They are like “field-grown” plants that stall a bit when transplanted, but adjust and send up new growth pretty quickly.
Unfortunately, after eighteen COVID months, many of our students are more like “greenhouse-grown” plants at the start of this year. Emotional muscles that usually figure out how to stretch are snapping instead. While adults have a kind of muscle-memory from their previous experiences that they can call on, young people are not so fortunate.
I am learning to see the invisible ice packs on their emotional muscles. I honor their determination, make room for their temporary strains, and tell myself to be a little more patient than usual this year as I wait for the exciting signs of new growth. They are working so hard at it; it will come.
--The Rev. Barbara Talcott
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