One great thing about taking time out and having new beginnings is the excitement and anticipation that comes along with it. What am I going to do now that I have committed time for me? What are those big things and little things I have yearned to achieve over the years but simply have never had the time? These questions…reflections… they always haunt you as you try your absolute hardest to maintain your focus… as you try to finish what you’ve begun… leap the last hurdle.
In my case, my time out has yet to begin. I am still in this transitioning lingering phase whereby I am still currently in employment… I still have people to help… to support…into employment… all on the backdrop of these future plans… and on the backdrop of a political/ social climate that appears to be more and more explosive. I say this after spending late Saturday evening, watching the news develop into discussions and debates on the Tottenham riots, or coming to work with slight anxiety after news that these riots have further spread into other boroughs of London. Some commentators have made reference to issues far beyond the death of Mark Duggan – to include wider socioeconomic issues, for example high rates of youth unemployment, unavailability of jobs, lack of funding for youth centres, etc.
These wider socioeconomic issues are the very issues that are raised in my workshops when discussing the challenges jobseekers face in their journey to employment. On a good day, my group is strong enough to differentiate between those factors that are within and outside of their control. On a bad day, my group is so overwhelmed by the economic hindrances that impact their success rate in finding work, that the result is a highly angry, frustrated, negative group of individuals that work themselves up into feeling helpless and uninspired. This can sometimes result in delivering highly challenging training sessions that need to constantly be steered into positive, constructive, solution-focused sessions… that, in my own effort, leave me feeling drained and shattered.
This state of being motivates me to seek something new… to start afresh, where I can be in more control of my own mood, wellbeing and perceptions of the state of the world today.
In this vain – 7 working days left.
Third Kulture Kid in Paris 