Dear class of 2020

These last few months – even your last two years – have not been wasted.

Sure, you might not get a chance now to show off your Macbeth quotes, how to factorise something with a x² or even that you’ve remembered every element in the periodic table. But, like other years before, you’ve learnt so much more than that.

You’ve learnt how to learn. The process of absorbing information, replaying it and applying it to a relevant context is the foundation for the rest of your life. Whether it’s in education, the workplace or life in general, it’s essential.

You’ve learnt that you need to manage your own time to be effective. You might not have perfected that yet! Don’t stop trying.

You’ve learnt about yourself; how you cope under pressure. It’s important that you keep learning about you, no one else can teach you that stuff.

You’ve learnt about the importance of being both supported and supportive. You are not in this alone. Mental health can be attacked by an invisible enemy that’s made worse by self-isolation.

And unlike any year before, you’ve learnt perhaps the most valuable lesson of all. You’ve learnt that life is not a straight line from where you are to where you want to be. It will twist and it will turn no matter what you do.

It can seem unfair. But how you respond and react will define your future successes. Right now, you are learning to pick yourselves up and carry on in a way that no other year has been confronted with before.

And you might just be better equipped for life because of it.

So instead of a list of numbers, put that on your CV. In bold.