Finding the Silver Lining

This post is a deviation from my normal travel posts but as the image (found in one of my Facebook groups) to the left says "no vacation this year".  

As we approach almost 5 months of living in a world with COVID (well it’s been longer than that but it didn’t become real to the US until March), I decided to make a list of my accomplishments since this craziness started and I became unemployed. My goal was to help me see the silver lining especially on those days when I’m struggling to feel like I’m accomplishing anything.

Those of you that know me well know I don’t consider myself busy unless I’m juggling at least 100 things. I know the day will come when I will be back planning meetings and life will be insane again but until that sweet day, I’ve tried (& will continue to try) to keep myself busy and treat weekdays like I’m working.

Unlike many in my industry, I was blessed to keep working until the end of March.  I was part of a global event team with meetings scheduled in Shanghai, Milan and Dallas from March through May. However, things started slowing down in early February when over the course of the next six weeks my client began making the tough and wise decision to one by one switch the in-person meetings for 1,500 each to virtual meetings. While I wasn't on the  new virtual team, I'm so proud of the fabulous job my teammates did to pivot so quickly and create excellent programs for our client and their partners.

I was still holding out hope my program scheduled for Chicago in June would take place.  Sadly, the virus was starting to take hold on the US and my client had to make another tough decision and cancelled the meeting.  So as of the end of March, I was "on a break".  Honestly at first, I was a little uncertain of what I was going to do with all this free time as it had been since the Fall of 2011 since I had a true break.  While it is true I have taken many vacations since then, due to the nature of my work I never really disconnected.  One of the great benefits of working remotely as a meeting planner is I can work anywhere in the world as long as I can connect to WiFi. The downside is I don't know what to do when I don't have something to do.  So I gave myself permission to take the first week of April off but then got to work keeping myself busy.  

This is not meant to be a contest to see who has the most accomplishments, however, it is meant to challenge you to find the positives in these very unprecedented and uncertain times.

So, here's my silver lining to this slow down and pause period...

• 42 CEU hours in preparation for sitting for Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) exam on 8/18
• COVID-19 contact tracing certification
• Florida Atlantic University Hospitality & Tourism certification
• CVENT event management certification
• CVENT venue sourcing certification
• Several Great Courses lectures
• Took up coloring (so far I’ve taken 30 pictures to a local nursing home)
• Tried paint by number (not my jam)
• Deep cleaned my house (many times)
• Helped parents around the house
• Cleaned and inventoried freezer (discovered I had enough to get me through a zombie apocalypse)
• Got rid of clutter (Kidney Foundation and Facebook Marketplace are my new BFFs)
• Organized closets, drawers, pantry and garage
• Crossed off a lot of things on my “when I have down time” list
• Tried a lot of new recipes
• Finally found the key to my steamer trunk (turns out it was on my key ring because I put it there so “I would always know where it was”...mind you I only have 4 keys on the ring so you’d think I would have realized it was there sooner‍)
• Bing watched Tiger King (8 hours of my life I’ll never get back)
• Became an online grocery shopping expert
• Became quite familiar with my UPS/FedEx/Prime delivery folks
• Spent more time with parents
• Renewed old friendships thanks to Facebook and Zoom
• Learned a lot about daily life in Singapore thanks to weekly WhatsApp chats with friend living there (we’ve been coworkers since 2018 but thanks to COVID we’ve become friends)
• Finally found an umbrella stand for my back porch that can withstand a little wind (for the record it took 5 tries and finally found a 65 lb steel stand...if only I had a video of me getting from the back of my car out to the porch). Thank goodness for Lowe’s or was it Home Depot (who knows at this point) curbside pick-up!

So, what is your silver lining?