Introductory Remarks by Angela deFreitas at the Zoom session
presented by CHOICES & JAGCE
April 22, 2020
I have a question for you – has anyone grown this year? – there are many ways to grow remember – side ways expansion, shooting up a couple of inches, pants getting shorter, clothes tighter, bigger muscles, greater physical strength…. and more. So again, has anyone grown – jazz hands, please – looks like most of you have.
Well, that is not all about physical growth. There is another type of growth. That is an emotional growth and it’s something we all have to understand and include in our growth plan for our life.
And that is why we are all here today, for the same reason and to try and help you with that same age-old problem – stress. If you grow to the extent that you can manage all the stress which comes in front of you, then you are half way to solving most of your issues in life.
Now, stress has really intensified with modern times and modern life and dealing with it correctly comes with emotional growth.
Remember the good old Jamaican saying which is known the world over, printed on millions of T-shirts and which has spread across the world “No problem Mon”.
We want you to get back to that place where you can just shrug off problems, know how to deal with them and move on positively, always with goals, aims, ambitions right ahead of us. But, for most of us now, this will require a particular positive mindset, a plan and practical strategies – “a real change of mind”.
JAGCE and CHOICES have brought this group together for this topic, “Coping With Stress During the Covid-19 Disruption” – in continuing to be part of a massive Jamaican – and Caribbean – SOS – save our students. CHOICES has been on this mission for over 20 years to help young people, their counsellors, their parents and others.
So, today, we’re taking a moment to think about this moment and how we can all help in some way in this moment. And, we can all help. And, we definitely want you to know, students, we want you to know – parents – that we are here to assist you in any way we can.
The future I am sure that you are realising, is here. It has swooped down upon us and is now in our midst forcing our hand and challenging every notion we previously had about life, society, structure etc.
We need to ensure that we are emotionally prepared and have a strong mindset for what is happening and what is to come. That is what today is about.
