What do you when your exams are cancelled?
Last year I ran a young people executive training program in Poland at the British School in Krakow read about here. The young people would normally have exams in May but these have been cancelled; they will receive grades in July based on coursework submitted; graduation was planned for last day of exams on 22 May and was meant to mark the culmination of an arduous 2-year journey; we’ve decided to hold a virtual ceremony and will put together something memorable. This is the video I sent.
This is what a student wrote about the workshop.
Last week (29/11/2019), the IB students were given the chance to participate in former Buddhist monk Amaranatho’s workshop. The theme of the workshop was ‘mindfulness’, and we worked with each other to discuss the means of being mindful. This was done by means of: activities, such as trying to control our pace of walking; communicating with others and trying to figure out the complexity of being ‘mindful’; and also by reacting to certain videos and trying to encrypt the meanings behind them. Before the workshop started, he asked us how we were feeling at the moment. He continued asking us throughout the day and there was a drastic change from the beginning of the day, to the end of the workshop.
All students that participated felt generally better and pleased as time went on. I personally went from feeling very tired, to feeling more energized and positive. I attribute this change to Amaranatho’s workshop of getting us to learn more about ‘mindfulness’. All students were able to relate to me, as they also felt glad that they took part in this event.
Being an IB student could be tough, and the looming pressure of getting good grades, and receiving a ton of assignments not helping to get the weight off our shoulders, and I believe that this workshop has helped us a lot in understanding that at the end of the day, we should not worry about the future, but live in the present. He reminded us with one valuable quote:
“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and the present is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.”
