Young people have faced so much during the pandemic. But while they still bellyache and moan, their endless adaptability is an example to us all
The first professional trip I took was to Jersey, to interview a teenage skateboarder. He was slated to win some big competition, but I’m afraid I can’t tell you whether he did or what his name was. What I do remember is standing by the skate park, next to his mum, in this peculiar low island light, while he smashed himself to the ground, repeatedly, and got back up again.
Before long, his elbow was bleeding – but this, his mother assured me, was an old wound, so it opened up most days. He brushed it off – didn’t even appear to notice – along with every other brutal encounter with physics and gravity. “Well, he’s 14,” his mum said. “They bounce at that age.”
Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist
