Brooky, my 13-year-old granddaughter, is smack dab in the middle of middle school.
Even if there were no such thing as the Coronavirus, my heart would bleed for her.
That’s because I remember my 8th grade year as being the very worst of my life.
Too old to be a kid. Too young to do cool teen stuff.
I was routinely picked on by bullies and shunned by girls. Feeling awkward and alone, I had no idea who I was or how I fit into this world.
And I thank God everyday that I went through that dreadful experience. The pain, embarrassment, rejection, and total humiliation of 8th grade forced me to make some life-altering choices that paved the road I am on some 50-plus years later.
No one succeeds in middle school (aka ‘Junior High’). You only survive it. And it’s what happens between classes in the hallways and after school by the bus stop that determines that outcome for each individual.
Sadly, Brooky’s 8th grade experience is happening on her couch with an iPad in her hands. While she’s excelling academically, the Covid pandemic has closed her school and impeded her maturity and growth, just as it has for millions of middle schoolers world-wide. 
HOW TO KILL A BUTTERFLY BEFORE IT FLAPS ITS WINGS
In order to become a butterfly, the caterpillar has to fall apart completely and decompose down to its very essence, devoid of any shape or consciousness. It literally dies to where there is almost nothing left of it. Yet from this liquid essence, the butterfly starts to put itself together from raw elements.
Now if you took pity on this creature and wanted to help it escape from this traumatic ordeal by helping to open the very cocoon that entraps it, you’d be left with an unrecognizable puddle of goo.
It is the violent struggle for its very existence that enables a spineless wormy caterpillar to emerge from a cocoon as a glorious butterfly.
THE CHALLENGE AHEAD OF US
As to when schools will reopen and get back to any degree of normality is anyone’s guess, but it’s not going to happen anytime soon. Meanwhile, we better gear-up for a generation of dangerously ‘gooey’ adults who will enter society and our workforce in the next 5-to-10 years. While they’ll likely be able to handle disappointing events that happen around them, they will most certainly require stronger leadership and more coddling than those who’ve gone before them.
Resilience is the lynchpin that holds together knowledge, skills and the inevitable growth in maturity that young people will ultimately achieve. Resilience is a byproduct of overcoming struggles; of transcending difficult circumstances. While we work hard to protect our young people from the effects of a world-wide pandemic, a greater consequence will be felt should we allow them to stay cocooned until it weakens their immunity to the harsher realities of the future.
