The Guardian today carries a nice selection of extracts from emails sent by students on their gap year to their doting parents. The extracts, far from having the intended effect of calming their parents’ worries, probably had precisely the opposite effect. Sample:
Dear Mummy and Daddy, how are you? This may come as a shock but I am thinking of eloping with one of my students to Assam coz he is from the Naga tribe, and I want to be a Naga girl and go hunting monkeys with bows and arrows and fishing with spears like they do, and then come back and do tribal dancing all night, coz it’s so much fun, and all the tribal people here are so great and brave and strong. Obviously the political situation in Assam isn’t ideal, but I’ll be OK. Love you lots. Only an idea at the moment. X, Me
I have obviously led a sheltered life, since I don’t recall being in any situation remotely like some of the ones described here. And not having children ourselves means that we have missed out on the opportunity to experience parental panic. However, my brother, who is in his seventies, is currently travelling through South America, and sends me cheerful emails with news such as "survived an active volcano and a strikers’ blockade, burning tyres and all!", so I think I’m beginning to get the hang of how it must feel.
Geoff Coupe's Blog 
Leave a comment