Betcha Didn’t This Coming – A Global Pandemic

Living through 2020 meant living through a global pandemic, and boy oh boy did this test my patience and trust in people. I’ve always believed that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and 2020 has definitely proven that, and then some. This year has tested my patience, determination, and trust in others. But this year has also shown me that while things may be and feel difficult, this too shall pass, and I can do difficult things.

Pre-Global Pandemic Era

When this year started, I had heard rumblings from factories in China about the virus that was spreading, but containable. As the days went on, I was made aware of China shutting prior to Chinese New Year, sending the entire country into a lockdown. After my two lung infections in 2019, and constant battles about people coming to work when they’re sick (for the love of all things, go home! Especially when you have paid sick days!), I was making an effort to keep my craziness down to a tolerable level.

In January I was very busy with a work trip followed by my best friend’s wedding. If I had known that would be the last time I’d see my best friends, I’d have savoured more moments over those few days.

In December of 2019 I was accepted into the Chicago Marathon, so I was looking forward to booking a trip to Chicago that fall. My bank account wasn’t, but I was!

February was busy with an overseas colleague coming from the UK, and then we jetted off to Mexico to get some sun and see my parents.

If we had only known what was about to hit. I came back to work at the end of February and the virus had hit Vancouver and was exploding worldwide.

Life was about to change like nothing I had ever dreamt of. This was probably the wrong year to try and be less insane about people coming to work sick.

Global Pandemic Lockdown & Work From Home

Both my husband and I work relatively close to one another, and since we have one car we tend to alternate driving and taking transit. Jason starts later than I do, so he can drop me off in the morning if I am not driving and then I hop transit home. If I am driving, he takes transit to work because I start an hour before he does and I swing by and pick him so long as there are no crazy accidents preventing me from getting to his office. If you live in Metro Vancouver, you know what a gong show it can be.

In early March, we were both hesitant to be commuting via transit, and so was Jason’s boss. My boss (at the time) was indifferent about the potential issues with regard to taking transit. Nope, no problem at all when you have people crammed into a train and/or bus. Honestly. *insert eye roll here*

Because Jason’s boss didn’t want either of us taking transit, we started to commute together. However, to make this workable it meant me getting to work around 6:30 and not leaving until between 4:30-5:00 instead of leaving between 3:00-3:30. Conferences were being postponed or canceled left, right, and centre, so it’s not like there was a lot of sales work to be done, but lots to be done with the website. I took this opportunity to ask to work from home so that I could eliminate distractions, and not have to work 10-11 hours per day 5 days a week.

Enter work from home. Finally.

Working from home commenced the 3rd week of March for the three of us that chose to do so. We all thought we’d be at home working for a few weeks tops. HA! Lockdown was in full effect.

Life was busy; I had a lot of product photography to shoot for the new website, so my house turned into a studio some days. I am not a professional photographer, so this was a huuuuuuge learning curve for me. Good thing is that I had a lot of time!

Oh, and I volunteered for the GMID Goes Virtual event in mid-April. That event was pulled off in less than a month, and it was worth all the time and effort. That original grassroots movement has now evolved, and preparations are in full swing for GMID2021.

Introverted extrovert – COVID lockdown

The global pandemic of 2020 definitely taught me that I am an introverted extrovert. Yep!

As time went on, I learned that I really do miss and need people in my life. We had my sister and her boyfriend in our bubble as she was helping me with product photography as she had been furloughed. I missed my friends and my run club. And I did miss going to the office, but not the constant distractions that occurred in the office. I had a lot to focus on getting done, so being at home was very helpful.

I missed going to restaurants. We did order takeout at least once if not twice a week, from local Vancouver restaurants, to help them as much as we could (and we still do to this day).

I really thought that I would enjoy the downtime from all the social gatherings and requirements, but I didn’t. The struggle was real you guys. More so than I initially thought, so this meant I was fairly moody.

2020 is hitting where it hurts

Injuries prevail! Utter and complete sarcasm by the way.

Indeed, in true Ashley form, I landed myself some shin splints from running too fast and any and all non-medical clinics were closed, phyiso included. I am cranky when I cannot run. Compound this with the pandemic grouchies, and I was grouchier than Oscar The Grouch.

Jason was continuing to go to the office, and there was only a couple of them in the office so at least he was getting a little bit of social interaction. If we had both been working from home in this condo, we may have lost it. Not being able to run, plus the endless alone time, and a small space – that’s a true test of marriage right there!

The COVID era normal – post lockdown

Restaurants opened up with limited capacity, and we were allowed to slowly extend our social bubbles.

Thankfully, our Striderz Run Club started back up, and while I caused myself shin splints in the early part of lockdown, it felt good getting back out there, albeit slowly. I would meet friends for walks and finally could get myself into physio since all clinics had been closed. While I was able to see a select amount of people, life still didn’t feel normal. I had however at this point learned to accept that feeling normal during a global pandemic isn’t necessarily a thing, so I tried not to focus on feeling normal. Rather, I just tried to focus on the positive, and be thankful for what we could do, and that we were both still working.

I continued to work from home when the other two went back to the office. For me, I just wasn’t comfortable being in an open office area with all 7 of us in that space. I came into the office once every week or every other week depending on schedules and communicated constantly with the office while at home. Some days I worked longer at home than if I were at the office. That didn’t even happen on purpose; you just get in a groove.

We took opportunities to go to Whistler and support a drastically reduced tourism sector. We were able to get away with our social bubble for an extended weekend getaway. I honestly never felt better. We even decided to buy stand up paddleboards so we had another reason to get outside.

When life comes crashing down – decompress; assess; take action

Throughout this global pandemic, discussions had been had about how layoffs would happen, as we knew they were inevitable. In September 2020, my trust was broken thanks to a phrase called restructuring. I was the first to be laid off, and as someone who has never been fired or laid off, it hit me harder than I thought.

Being laid off is nothing like I anticipated.

I was someone who could do multiple jobs and had in the summer of 2019 when everyone was allowed to be off at the same time, so I contemplated fighting the layoff. But, I honestly didn’t want to leave like that, nor did I want to work for someone who would say “you won’t be the first because of x, y, z” to then being the first. I was obviously no longer valuable to the organization in the restructuring, so I took my layoff terms, signed off on them, and put that chapter behind me. Once my trust is broken, it is nearly impossible to get back.

I cried, ran, punched a pillow or two, and I ate my feelings. Literally; after my run, I went to Whole Foods and snagged a square of carrot cake. Zero regrets.

What now?

I took an entire week to do nothing. That was the best advice I could receive. By taking an entire week to decompress, I had an idea; go solo. September 2020 was one of the worst months of my life, but it gave me exactly what I needed; a kick in the pants.

I spent the next month getting myself organized for the blog side of this site, and the marketing consulting side base, with a lot of work still to go.

And then I took on a website build volunteer project, and I felt like I had a purpose again. The days were full and busy, and I was working on things that made me happy. For a horrible year, I was feeling quite positive.

Global Pandemic Lockdown – kinda – Round Two

Enter lockdown round two, but different. Restaurants have remained open – here at least – but we went back to household bubbles only, and no gatherings.

Our provincial government asked those that could to go back to work remotely, and if you did have to be in a workplace, that wearing a mask would be necessary. Masks became mandatory inside all establishments as continue to trude through this COVID global pandemic. We were told a second wave was inevitable, but at least we knew a little more about the virus this fall.

Bubbles are household only and Christmas looked a lot different. Still made turkey though, because I am not giving that up.

Seeing high numbers of positive cases, and death rates have been disheartening. My heart aches for families that are going through the chaos of this disease.

One of my best friends had a baby this fall and I have yet to be able to see her and hold her. I want to be able to smush her little newborn cheeks, but I can’t and that hurts. On the plus side, my cousin who is a nurse got to be there, so it’s like I was there. That’s my positive spin 😉

While I anxiously await the restrictions to ease, so I can get back to seeing my extended bubble, I am just rolling with it. I miss and want to see my family, but I only want to do it if our province is in a better place.

Proceeding with caution – there is a still a global pandemic going on

While I am looking forward to what 2021 will bring, and our local restrictions *hopefully,* being lifted the second week of January, I am learning to embrace the unknown. There is nothing that I can control other than how I react to the constant changing of our world. I need to learn to roll with what life gives me, and adapt.

With vaccines rolling out, there is hope and a light at the end of a tunnel. However, that tunnel is still fairly long, and it will take a long time to get the majority of the population vaccinated. We need to keep doing our part to keep vulnerable populations safe, and ourselves.

This year has been trying on everyone, myself included. I’ve never felt so out of sorts in my life, but this too shall pass. If we all work together to listen to the rules put in place, we can hopefully lower the number of people affected by this awful disease.

Ride the highs and the lows

2020 has consisted of high highs and low lows. But you know what? I’m still here. You’re still here. So while it seems like this is an era of your life that never seems like it is never going to get any better, start 2021 by finding something you are thankful for every week or every month. Heck, you could do it every day if you wanted. Refer back to those positive moments when you’re feeling like you are on the struggle bus.

This blog and other projects have kept me nice and busy, and it feels great to be doing something I love. I am in control of my own destiny, and this is not at all how I saw this year panning out, but I am pleasantly happy with how 2020 has turned out – relatively speaking.

2020 has taught me to worry about me, and not others. Not how others act, or how they perceive me. Being authentic to myself is something that should just be projected naturally, and not something I have to argue with someone about. I hope to not have to live through another global pandemic in my lifetime, but if I do, I just need to look back at 2020 and remind myself that this too shall pass.

Have you taken some time to look back on 2020? What do you realize now that you didn’t realize at the time? What have you learned about yourself?