A Young Leaders’ Workshop
Hey, awesome young people! I wanted to share my reflection on the Young Leaders’ Workshop,* since I didn't get a chance to write while I was there.
The workshop was such a powerful reminder of what’s important. There’s always something special about RC workshops with such a great group of young people. I love how playful we can be with each other and at the same time think well about each other as Co-Counselors. One thing young people’s workshops can do really well is balance fun and playfulness with heavy feelings and discharge. It’s awesome to see how smart we are about using RC as young people!
One of my favorite parts was having Mari and Tim remind us how big a part of young people’s oppression it is to devalue and trivialize our relationships with each other. It seems so messed up that we can be so clear on how much we care about each other and like being together while we’re at the workshop and then, as soon as we get home, start forgetting that having that contact was and is real.
I think it’s a great direction to hold that we get to notice how much we care about other young people in our lives and how big a deal that is to us—really notice how hard we’d like to fight to be close if we didn’t have so much early discouragement around this stuff. After the workshop I see clearly that one of the best ways to challenge young people’s oppression is to fight to remember how much we care about each other and how cared about we are, and really let that matter to us.
Love you all!
Jamie Irwin
Wilmington, Delaware, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion
list for leaders of young people
* A workshop led by Mari Piggott and Tim Jackins, in New York, USA, in January 2014