“In London, everyone is different, and that means anyone can fit in.”
Paddington Bear, 20th-century friendly and polite bear from Peru. This London quote is from the book A Bear Called Paddington.
As quoted by a particular friendly bear above, there was a feel in London that you can go about your business, even if you are in ‘tourist mode’, regardless of who you are or where you are from, almost seamlessly blending in. London is a bustling, vibrant, multicultural and cosmopolitan city that can be both overwhelming and yet welcoming at the same time.
As someone who moved to Lincolnshire for a quieter way of life from a big city in Scotland nearly a decade ago, travelling solo to London for work was at first a little daunting to say the least, especially as it was going to be on several occasions within a two week period. I can safely say now, that it was a truly amazing experience on each and every one of those occasions.
Representing ‘Let’s Talk Training’, the training arm of Harmless & The Tomorrow Project, I had the privilege over the last two weeks of delivering life saving Suicide Awareness training sessions for a charity who are doing incredibly great work supporting veterans and also delivering a Self Harm workshop at a wonderful conference on school mental health and wellbeing.
Everyone I came in to contact with from attendees to delegates and all the way through to event organisers, were warm, welcoming and much like us all here at Harmless & The Tomorrow project – passionate about making positive change and inspiring, nurturing, developing that all important hope in people who may be struggling to hold onto it themselves.
One of the main elements that I love in my role is working alongside and meeting some inspiring, wonderful humans along the way and during my time in London, it allowed me to be in such a large busy place with a cup of tea in hand briefly watching the world go by, to be able to step back and watch on as the world carries on around you, while after the final sip of said tea, being able to snap out of that and carry on with the rest of my day..
As an organisation, we are in the East Midlands, but our reach goes far beyond and I look forward to where my travels may take me in future and the humans I will meet along the way!
Shaun Young – Trainee Team Lead & Trainer
