Celebrating in uncertain times

On Thursday, our eldest daughter received her GCSE results along with many other pupils worldwide.

And we know that 2020 has been a year full of oddities, uncertainty and unique challenges. These things spilled over into every area of our lives and had a very direct impact on her studies this year.

In person classes ended abruptly in March and were not resumed at all. Online classes replaced her school environment, with her bedroom become her small world ... no longer where she retreated from the world. And finally the verdict came that the GCSE exams would not take place and marks would be awarded based on teacher assessments, class ranking and the Mock exams, to name a few.

We have the incredible privilege of an exceptional school which was well prepared for online teaching and very dedicated teachers that poured all their energy into making it work.

But the situation was never ideal.

The loss of social interaction that happened organically and in person was hard to deal with, on top of the stress of adapting to a new way of assessment.

With that as the backdrop, our 16 year old dug deep and got it done. She showed up in remarkably mature ways, being prepared for lessons, continuing to strive towards her personal best and maintaining social contacts using technology to its fullest capacity.

And she kept going to the very end of the school year.

I am sure that not everyone's results will be an accurate reflection of their ability and potential as well as the effort they put into their learning. But hers did. She achieved the highest results possible across all of her subjects. And when the results arrived by email on Thursday, trepidation quickly turned to elation as she saw how well she was rewarded.

Today we took time as a family to celebrate her achievements with a fancy meal (outdoors, socially distanced!) at a great restaurant. And we took time to congratulate her. And also to ask her younger siblings whether they feel any pressure based on her results, because she has set the bar very high. Interestingly, they all said that they were not competing with her, but themselves, which was a relief to hear.

And as we savoured our food, chatted and laughed together, I was struck again by the importance of celebration. Even when life seems uncertain and maybe especially then. And the flip-side of that, the very ordinary, yet subversive acts of continuously showing up, and embracing life in its full "What is" messiness. Not waiting for it to be everything we hope for.

May you have many reasons to celebrate and even more moments of embracing "What is".

#embracingwhatis