My place in the world

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of participating in a very interesting project dedicated to children aged between 16 and 21. It is useless to underline the difficulties and uncertainties that Generation X is experiencing in this historical period, conditioned first by Covid and then by the social and economic instability that has led to a dangerous crescendo of crazy wars.

I have always been a huge fan of young people, and still am. I love the vivacity that comes out at that age, the fire that turns on and off like a stroboscopic light in a disco, the downs and ups that alternate behind dreams that arise and vanish like clouds in the sky. Young people, despite everything, always find a way to be reborn, and they do so against all rational logic of adults. But it is also true that they are not always able to find their place in the world so easily. Because doing so requires drastic choices, sometimes inconvenient or very tiring, and it is not easy for them to understand this. To tell the truth, there are hundreds, thousands of adults who still cannot know what their place in the world is, because age is not enough, awareness is needed.

The "My place in the world" project, financed by the Lombardy Region, saw the participation of 57 children from the ISIS Valceresio institute, and was part of the school's PCT programme. With the collaboration of eight top-level psychologists and one of the most important psychiatrists in Europe, it aims to tell participants that every human being, regardless of age, lives and faces the same weaknesses, the same mistakes, the same frustrations, disappointments, failures, uncertainties, but who then, if equipped with the right tools, will be able to find the reason why he was born, the path towards personal affirmation.

The activities introduced to obtain such an ambitious result concerned four large spheres: the ego, the us, the place where we live, the historical period in which we live. It is clear that being able to become aware of our ego allows us to gain the strength to face any disappointment or failure, but if this takes its toll on us - therefore, on the ability to relate to others, in listening and in the consequent adaptation – risks becoming counterproductive.
Even the place where we live has a decisive value for our growth, initially because there we find the actions to choose from, in addition to the first examples that we learn to imitate but, subsequently, because it can become the comparison in which we can evolve. Finally, the historical context in which we were born cannot be underestimated.
Today the ecological transition calls us to new social and economic challenges, but also to something more complex such as "integral ecology" so promoted by Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato si'. Man and nature as a single entity, indissoluble, indivisible.

The practical application of all these great themes led the children to face inclusive workshops, such as the percussion one held by musicians with cognitive disabilities, or the construction of collective organic gardens, but also personal meetings with psychologists and thematic conferences with great personalities of the world of sport, TV, or art which have made it possible to break down any mistrust given by the role they hold today.
Finding one's place in the world must become the goal of each of us and, once found, it becomes the means to our happiness.

Max Laudadio
NP May 2024