Blue Monday?? Don't accept everything you're told!

Monday 20 January was the day this year when we are judged to be at our most depressed. This concept was born in Cardiff University in 2005, when a mathematical formula was created to show us just how miserable we should be: 

Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now 
A combination of factors appear to conspire to make us thoroughly miserable at this time; the Christmas tree has come down but Christmas indulgence is still weighing us down!  We may have already blown any new year’s resolutions, the credit card bill has arrived, it’s dark and dreary, and we don’t get paid for another couple of weeks.  Ho ho ho!

Read All About It  
The press really doesn’t help.  I look, often in vain, for the good news stories: a team I support able to play a match and winning, a cuddly animal ‘and finally’ story, a random act of kindness or an unqualified celebration of joy.  They are a little thin on the ground, but look and they are there!  It has long been said that good news doesn’t sell newspapers, so you might need to look quite hard! 

Hoax 
Just to cement the good cheer, it then turns out that the concept of Blue Monday is, at best, a discredited piece of research (how, after all, can you give motivation a number?) and at worst, a marketing hoax.  Well HOORAY to that!  We learn that the work was commissioned and publicised by the now defunct SKY TRAVEL; so it is not too much of a leap to realise that Blue Monday was actually a concept created to encourage miserable British folk to think about booking a holiday.  Such cynicism has no place here! 

Reasons to be Cheerful 
Even in these dark days, we have so much for which to be thankful and to have good cheer. 
1. Our pupils are working hard and having lots of fun. 
2. Our Be A Chorister For A Day event was attended by over 70 pupils interested in singing and the school. 
3. It is still university offer season, and we hear every day another member of the Upper Sixth excited by an offer which may define their future. 
4. We spent a splendid evening with a group of alumni and parents to celebrate the A Level and BTEC success of last summer – it was wonderful to hear how well they are all now doing on their chosen paths. 
5. We have a concert to look forward to next week, along with Foundation Day celebrations and a school opera coming soon! (Don’t forget to buy your tickets!) 
6. We have the chance to witness on an hourly basis the indomitable spirit of the LCS child, the warm appreciation of their parents and the great dedication of the staff. 

So, putting it simply  - Goodbye Blue Monday and here’s to a joyous week – Inservi Deo et laetare!