Retro - Why the children of Covid-19 will also look back at what might have been

Trying to get back to some sort of “new normal” after the debacle of exam results, what are the sixteen to eighteen year-olds thinking, in comparison to what I was thinking, all those years ago?

They must have felt that all there hopes and dreams had be torn away from them, until the U by the government on the grades given.

But by then choice of course and University places had gone for many.

As I remember, way back in 1981 there was no great expectations on exam result day.

No BBC or press to record us collecting our grades. Back then as I remember there was no great expectation with regards going on to further education and the dizzy heights of University.

That was for white, middle classes, those kind of people who took a year out to travel and find themselves. No such great expectations for me or many of my contemporaries.

We at the time were going through a recession, one of the deepest and hardest of the twentieth century, only surpassed by the deep depression of the 1920s.

However not as deep as the one to come, or so they say? I sincerely hope not.

All I was thinking about back then was getting a job and earning for the first time in my life.

This was nigh impossible as The Steel works (the biggest source of employment at the time) were going through a massive decline and apprenticeships were scarce let alone jobs.

If you had a job or apprenticeship at the time you were some kind of magician or celebrity. These were the times comically depicted in the film The Full Monty but as most who lived through those times, comical was far from reality.

1983 heralded the start of the miners dispute pushing our region into more of a decline and division.

We had The Youth Opportunity (YOPS) scheme. These had a varying degree of success for some, less so for others.

Cries of exploitation from some, but others did say they loved their experience.

I found myself at Daniel Doncasters on Penistone Road. Difficult to say what I felt as I had nothing to compare it to.

Looking back Daniel Doncasters looked after me well, basically they had this young, naive sixteen-year-old to look after and keep safe. I feel this was the same for Doncasters and countless other companies. I think they knew there was no job at the end of the six months which made it difficult to motivate these young people wanting to work hard and to gain full employment.

Children of today seem to be more savvy than I was. They have hopes, aims and expectations.

Advancing to further education and University, is more of a norm than an exception.

They really strived to do these exams, to get the grades to advance their opportunities, daring to dream.

Dreaming wasn’t really an option back then. Options were scarce and advice even less.

I believe the children of Covid-19 will look back with quiet contemplation as I do now. A time of what ifs and buts. That’s life.