Hope For The Future

 

Evening Gazette Column by Orla McLoone, Blossom Project Worker for A Way Out

 

What do I contribute to the world? What is important to me? What motivates me to succeed and meet my goals? These are questions I have often asked myself throughout my life. Questions like these are not easily answered, and they are not questions we typically spend a lot of time in our day to day life trying to answer. Despite this, the answers to these questions are important for helping us figure out what makes us tick and what we want out of our lives.

 

These questions form the basis of my work at A Way Out. My role within the Blossom project, is to support young women to find the answers to these questions. To help them find out what makes them unique, to match their strengths with their education or employment goals and in doing so increase their confidence and self- esteem. Ultimately empowering them to go out into the world and find their own way.

 

I firmly believe that hope is the foundation on which motivation is built. The ability to plan and have hope for the future is something that a lot of us feel, has been taken away from us during this pandemic. This is a particularly stressful time for young people, who may be questioning their futures. One thing that the charity A Way Out do well is bringing hope to those who need it. Hope is contagious, if I can inspire it in the young women I work with, then they can go out into the world and do the same. As I am writing this, I am reminded of a powerful quote from Maya Angelou:

 

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”

 

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