A Letter to Students, Fall 2020

You Were Born for this Time.

You Will Make Your Own Stories

You keep hearing the word unprecedented, right?

For some reason, it seems to be coming with negative connotations.

What if, instead of thinking —

2020 happened to me

you decide —

2020 happened for me?

This is your time, friends.

Unprecedented doesn’t mean bad. It means unique.

It means no one has faced what we are facing right now, in the way that we are facing it.

What does this mean for you?

It means you get to create this year of school, whether it’s your freshman year or senior year of high school or college, or any other year in your education.

Your parents are grieving what they see as your loss, all the wonderful things they experienced as seniors.(Many of them won’t tell you that prom sucked, that graduation was boring and they slept through it, or that while there were fond memories of high school, the far more meaningful memories and stories came after those years.) They are grieving things that haven’t happened yet. They are projecting their grief onto you.

It’s understandable because, as parents, it’s all we know. We don’t want to see you miss out on anything!

But what if we reframe this entire discussion to determine what CAN happen instead of focusing on what won’t happen.

What does that mean?

It means that you have a choice and an opportunity to create new traditions, new ways of doing things, new ways of addressing the issues our communities are currently facing.

You will not follow a traditional path. You already knew that. You’ve seen data coming from our economic and business experts, you know we’re facing a bigger and bigger gig economy, fewer traditional university and college education paths, and a majority of future jobs that we cannot even begin to imagine — all within the next 5 to 10 years.

So why not start RIGHT NOW with a non-traditional path?

Imagine yourself standing at the doorway of an institution, a school, your home, work. Imagine you are looking out at an open field with a few well-worn paths; the majority of what’s in front of you is wide open. (There’s a reason they call Montana Big Sky Country.) You see a stunning, snow-capped mountain in the distance. You are tempted to step out of that institution, knowing going back means standing still while the world around you changes. You look out at the meadow full of giant boulders, yellow, red, and blue wildflowers, tall grasses, and very few footprints. You know there’s adventure ahead, and it makes your heart pound. You begin to smile, the corners of your mouth moving up, your eyes crinkling at the edges. There is company to be found in the wild, and you see someone in the distance that is taking an interesting journey ahead of you. You decide to head in that direction. You’re not committing to anything but leaving the institution, which you’re prepared to do. Take the step. You have a role in your future, in the future of your community.

Our global communities are changing dramatically, and you are on the edge of that change. It’s not easy, and it feels like a huge responsibility.

You are up for it, friends.

You were born in a time of revolution in many ways, and your growing up environment prepared you for this moment. Truly.

You were raised with digital devices in your hands and learned quickly how they can get ugly. You watched your older siblings and parents become addicted to their phones, distracted from you, and many of you made the choice NOT to follow that path.

You cut your teeth on video games that actually created neural pathways to improve your hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. Your schooling stayed traditional while you learned on your own how to connect with people all over the world, build communities around pictures, hobbies, and silly video production.

You can handle this. You WILL handle this with grace and innovation.

Stop grieving a future that never existed.

You were born for this time. Make it count.

Originally published at http://elkinsconsulting.com on August 24, 2020.

Sarah Elkins loves to guide individuals and teams to improve communication, using storytelling as the foundation of her work. She is a Gallup certified Strengths coach and uses that tool to coach her clients to improve their communication in all relationships, and to find more satisfaction at work and at home.

Her book, Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will is available on bookshop.org (supporting independent booksellers), and on Amazon. The audiobook will be available in fall 2020.