Well, it’s late December again — the time when individuals, families and businesses often recount the highlights (and sometimes the lowlights) in an end-of-year message, sharing with heartfelt gratitude and emotionally-charged fortitude their greatest lessons, breakthroughs and triumphs.
However, this year — 2021 — those stories come with both a dark caveat and an emotional weight that most of us have never experienced.
2021 was the second consecutive year inside of a global pandemic, and much of our personal and collective efforts were focused on keeping our loved ones, our communities and ourselves safe from harm. Such a relentless assault on our physical and emotional wellbeing naturally causes everything else to take a backseat, from work requirements to family traditions to regular routines. Nonetheless, in many ways life has gone on, and so we have all dug deep to summon the strength for each day; to adapt where needed; and to completely change the way we think and act about the world around us. Even though it has been an exhausting journey, we have felt a sense of responsibility to one another and to the greater world around us. So we have pressed in, we have fought, we have lost, we have collapsed, we have risen again, we have laughed, we have cried, and we have both given and received grace where needed. And whether we realized it or not, the world has shifted — we have shifted — and the future has accelerated, transitioned and given birth to novel realities that we are only beginning to perceive.
This story is one that reflects the lives of those who make up the team at The Futures School, as well as our extended family that we have been privileged to work alongside of during these past 12 months. Counterintuitively (or maybe exactly because of the sense of growing uncertainty) TFS has been busier in 2021 than any year prior, and that has been both an incredible blessing and an incredibly hard task. However, we end this year with the confidence that our mission to democratize foresight and democratize the future — a mandate that is critical during any era — has become even more important. Whether the pandemic ends soon or stretches on, the world is faced with a plethora of incredible opportunities and challenges that possess an even larger scope and scale than our present dilemma, especially when combined: climate change, global migration, the upheaval of traditional work, economic volatility, technological disruption, digital ethics, generative design, human potential, unprecedented discoveries, and so much more. We — like many of you — look to a future that is pushing and pulling us with worry and wonder, anxiety and awe. For this reason, we are grateful for the much needed rest that this season brings, but also for the chance to reflect on our growing commitment to join with countless individuals from around the world to “discover the future and create it today.” This reflection has fostered an intentional evolution of our team’s approach to our ongoing mission, and that’s why the vision we are manifesting in 2022 will be unlike anything that The Futures School has ever done before! We are counting down the hours before we reveal this incredible new vision and intention to all of you — one that we hope will expand and empower a futures consciousness far beyond our previous boundaries and reach.
Until then, we wish our TFS family and friends more than just a Happy Holidays. It is our hope that you find care, reconciliation and love in the midst of hardship; peace in the midst of change; and the courage to cultivate the untapped potential of our emerging futures. 2022 will certainly be full of surprises for us all — who will you be in the midst of all that it holds?
Warmly,
The Futures School
