The Importance of Joy and having Fun!
This past year, we have had a lot of joyous moments across the Youth Company; from the young people singing their hearts out on the minibus to our Grow Up! Residential, to giggling at how competitive everyone is when we play drama games such as ‘I’m the Head of New York’... not to mention their fantastic performances of Grow Up! earlier this year.
Each week we see the young people, they are always keen to share a MOJ or story from their weeks. When we asked them about what’s on their minds currently they shared a variety of answers, such as questions around the future “What is the meaning of life?”, thoughts around revision, exams and most importantly “Food!” Amongst the busy questions and school period they are all going through, one Youth Company member said that we should write a blog about fun, so we thought why not!
Joy is a core value here at Beyond Face, and it is important to us to embed as part of our culture internally and externally with our team as well as when working with our participants and partners. It was so great to hear the young people also hold this value close to them. Find out here about how our young people have fun in their day to day lives.
Fun for me is…
“Dance and theatre. Music. Singing. The colour yellow. Musicals - MATILDA! Supporting at school. Being with friends.”
“Eating sushi. I like sushi as its flavorful and nutritious. I like cooking as it's entertaining and there's always something good to come out of it. Ohhhh my favourite thing to cook is probably Jamaican style fried basa with sweet potato mash and tomato salsa - it’s so good! I would recommend. I made it once and now I make it by memory. Once I forgot to season it but it still tasted good…it always tastes good. Good food makes you happy, its good to be happy!”
“Fun for me is playing football, cooking food and going to the shops. Cooking lasagne is fun so I can eat it after.”
“Fun for me is shopping because I like looking at all the different clothing and makeup.”
“Going to town (I absolutely love Pop-eyes, shopping in Primark, it's good to have a variety of places to go).”
“Fun for me is sleeping and listening to music. I find them mixed together is calming and relaxing for me.”
Why is having fun important?
“It brings joy and happiness”
“If you aren’t happy, you can’t live your best life”
“It allows you to engage with other people”
It means you are not letting fear hold you back from having fun: “if you are scared you don’t do it and you might have missed out on the fun, you will regret it later… your fun is being deducted!”
There's a real sense from their responses that having fun differs for each individual, but nonetheless it is the gateway to help us try new things, make friends and embrace life to the fullest. It’s so important that throughout busy periods in our lives we still find moments of joy within our day to day; whether it be cooking a tasty meal, having a much needed catch up with a friend or simply wearing clothes that make us feel good.
What does fun look like to you? And what is your MOJ for this week?
