Mind Moves:Young people are wonderful. They are our joy in the present, our hope for the future and the group in whom we must place our trust for a better world, writes Marie Murray.
They are the life force of society. They are the powerhouses of possibility. They are not oppressed by the past: for it is to be remedied rather than ruminated upon. They have not lived in our past and so they are liberated from it.
Besides, they have more years ahead than behind them. They can imagine the future. They are the future. The future "belongs to them".
The young adults of today have grown up in a world unimaginable to former generations. Their communicative behaviour and social networks are diverse, creative and innovative. They are in ongoing dialogue with each other and the world, logging on and blogging in synchronous and asynchronous time, messaging each other using multimedia - ICQ, IRC, MMS newsgroups, bebo and YouTube - programmes; chat rooms; and the messages, texts, images, video and sound they upload, view and distribute to and from their mobile phones or computers. They know what we do not know and they are both local and global.
They are special. Antediluvian technophobes who struggle with the speed of technological change have only to ask a student to explain any aspect of it and the request will be met with patient, comprehensive, respectful assistance.
Anyone privileged to work with or on behalf of young adults in second- or third-level educational institutions becomes aware of how much is to be learned from being with students and the extraordinary generosity with which they share their ideas, their knowledge, their perspectives and ideals.
Older adults working with young people have privileged access to youth's energy, idealism and enthusiasm. The lens through which youth looks on life remains available through them. By being in their presence one is kept intellectually alive, challenged by their questions, confronted by their challenges, connected to their concerns and cognisant of the core issues in life.
There is joy in being around young people, their energy, vibrancy and exuberance. Even when they are unhappy there is often their extraordinary courage in coping with adversity that older adults cannot but admire. It is easy to take their presence for granted. It is easy to take them for granted.
Until something terrible happens such as the Virginia Tech tragedy when 32 of these young, vibrant, wonderful lives ended. Then we remember something we should not forget.
At this time of the year all student life at every educational level is pressurised. Assignments are ongoing, exams are imminent, anxiety is high and there are challenges ahead. Countdowns to the Junior Cert and Leaving Cert are in progress and there is mounting media attention to student issues and examination advice.
At third level there are undergraduate anxieties: first years hoping to progress to second year, each year seeking to achieve the next level, postgraduates working on theses, a multiplicity of tasks for everyone lies ahead.
And then there is a tragedy of the magnitude of Virginia Tech and it reminds us that in life's pressures we might forget to remember how precious young people's lives are, by virtue of their existence and regardless of everything else.
It reminds us how much we respect them. It reminds us that what is most important is one single fact: that they are alive. It is their lives, their existence, it is they themselves that we value. As a nation we tap in to extraordinary gratitude that those Irish students who were in Virginia Tech survived and we become aware of our exceptional grief for those other students and their families who did not.
There are many emotional issues to be dealt with for those who are part of, witness or survive disaster. The degree of personal impact depends upon whether one knows someone who died or someone who could have died.
Grief after disaster is very different from other forms of grief. Repetitive media reporting keeps the images alive. There is vicarious trauma for those who knew people who were involved.
There is also relief, gratitude and survivor guilt for those people who were spared. Psychic numbing - the loss of capacity for emotion or diminished capacity to feel the reality of what happened - is common. Shock, denial and anger are usual and group emotions as well as individual emotions occur.
And there is what is called the struggle for significance by which people give meaning to what happened, recognise a wake-up call in what occurred and understand the messages that emerge from tragedy.
There are many messages this tragedy conveys. But in the midst of distress there is perhaps one positive message, which is a message that we might now send to young students everywhere. The message is how significant you are, how greatly we value you, how much you enrich the world, how important your lives are and how we appreciate your existence and your presence, now and in your future.
A multi-denominational service of solidarity and remembrance will be held at the campus church, Our Lady Seat of Wisdom, Belfield tomorrow, Wednesday, April 25th, at 11:45am.
Marie Murray is a clinical psychologist and director of student counselling services UCD.