2020 Across the World
2020 will be forever remembered as "the year that the world slowed down." As you well know - in March 2020 the entire world came to a halt as businesses and schools shut down, travel was limited to only essential groceries and medical supplies, curfews and shut-ins were enforced by large cities, social gatherings were prohibited and sheer panic caused the great toilet paper and Lysol crisis. Many hardworking people were out of work due to their company being forced to shut down and not having a way to work from home.
Yet something beautiful happened across the globe during this very trialing time. Life slowed down. Families started bonding and enjoying time together without the pressures of "needing to be somewhere." Social media started filling with people that were re-embracing their hobbies and sharing it with the world (art, music, reading books to children, etc.). Neighbors started connecting by singing and playing music from their balconies. People's hearts opened as they shared basic essentials with others in need (spare a square?). Many started counting their blessings and remembering what matters most in life – which is living life!
2020 In My World
In March of 2020, my world did not slow down...it only got faster. My husband and I are very fortunate to have careers that enabled us to seamlessly work from home during the pandemic. Working from home with a 5YO wasn't easy, but we were blessed to have a neighbor that could help him with his school work so that he wouldn't fall behind and to enable us to focus on our work. For all of that, I am forever grateful and would never take that for granted.
But what was life like for me as a B2B marketer during the pandemic?
Events - cancel, re-schedule and re-reschedule over 40 events (since everyone thought we'd be back soon) and completely re-invent what an event looked like (virtual versus in-person)
Plans - redo all marketing plans and budgets for the entire year
Messaging - re-swizzle all the marketing messages to position for strength in a pandemic
Job Duties - fill in for gaps in roles caused by team transitions
Demands - the deadlines, meetings and demands were increased 2X
PTO - thankfully my company gave us many Friday's off during 2020...in which I used to catch up without all the meetings/interruptions (please note that I don't condone this behavior!)
And what was life like at home during the pandemic?
My husband and I worked harder than ever, in more stressful conditions than ever. We tried our best to find a routine that worked for our family, which mainly involved my husband handling all meals (since I almost always worked through lunch/dinner), me helping with homework at 8 pm and eating dinner at 9 or 10 pm, us alternating our son's bedtime routine, and of course cramming all chores in on the weekends. Work came first, family came second, health...came third.
What We Lost in 2020
We made some great memories in 2020 – like the time we went fishing in the driveway (the back of my husband's truck was the boat, the trash can was the water, and a toy fishing pole), learning to ride a bike, losing the first tooth, hiking, adopting a bunny, going on secret missions to pick up tricky stickies (branches) and land mines (sweet gums) in the yard, painting and picnicking in the front yard, and the biggest and best memory was our oldest son moving down from Iowa to spend more time with the family (the highlight of 2020 for sure!).
But in 2020, we lost something as well. A handle on our health. What irony, while the global shut down was happening to ensure everyone's health...somewhere along the way we lost sight of our own health. It wasn't overnight like the pandemic. No, it crept in slowly over time. Those of you who have known me for a while, know that I've battled with chronic health conditions since age 25. I had made some extreme life changes to help prioritize my health pre-pandemic, and was doing a pretty darn good job of sticking to a routine of diet, exercise and supplements. But slowly, over time, there was less time for exercise, less time to meal-prep, and less time to take supplements (at the weird intervals needed for them to be effective). Those of you who have known my husband for a while, know that he has always been super healthy, with the one exception of choking on his food every time he ate (we were told his esophagus needed to be stretched). Work and family had taken priority in 2020, and little did we know that losing sight of our health would forever change our 2021.
Near Year, New Us
2021 started out with a bang. We celebrated our first New Year's Eve with our oldest son, for the first time in years I made a New Year's Resolution (which was to focus on health), and we were counting down the days to our big anniversary trip to Sedona, AZ that we had been planning for 2 years. Our 2021 world was just as fast-paced as 2020, without signs of slowing down, so we were just pushing through all the stress to get to vacation – knowing that right around the corner all those late nights and zombie routines were going to pay off when we got that 1 week to let our hair down and enjoy the site seeing, healing vortexes and alone time together in Sedona.
Fast forward to April - we got our alone time on vacation alright...but not together. The moment we pulled into the parking space at our hotel in Sedona, my husband said he suddenly didn't feel well. I knew it had to be serious when he rushed off without grabbing the luggage, and I found him lying in the hotel floor unable to stand without getting light headed. (How scary to think he drove us 2 hours through the dessert just prior ,and could have passed out!) Long story short, my husband spent 4 days in the hospital suffering from massive blood loss from a Mallory Weiss Tear (where the esophagus meetings the stomach) and an ulcer that we didn't know he had. Apparently the choking issue he'd been experiencing was actually from acid reflux...misdiagnosed and untreated from years ago. He lost a ton of blood in the night, and after 3 blood transfusions and a scope, he was released. Those 4 days were horrifying for us both. We were not allowed to see each other, so he was left to fight for his life in a strange hospital, while I was alone in a strange hotel/city/state fearing the worst. We wrapped up our trip early and went home without visiting the Healing Vortexes or the Grand Canyon, and definitely without relaxation. That experience was a wake-up call for us both. A reminder that life is too short, and without health, you have no life. Pushing through to vacation is no way to live. Life for us was forever changed. There was no going back.
Left: en route to Sedona; Right: post-hospital and inseparable by more than a foot apart
Retiring Early 40's
Fortunately for us, we had been planning for early retirement for years. My husband always had a vision of FIRE (financial independence, retire early) and we have been taking steps to get us there since we started dating 12 years ago. Thanks to our long term vision, partnership, due diligence, and patience we were able to make the tough decision to leave our careers of 16 & 18 years in the Technology Industry to pursue a slower pace in life, with much less stress, and way more time to put health and family first. For my husband, he is pursuing his childhood dream of being a Swing Trader (similar to a Day Trader) and for me, I'm focusing on my health, gardening and crafts until I decide what's next for me.
And now it's time for our world to slow down...
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Shout Out's
A quick shout out to some very special people that helped me through a tough time while my husband was in the hospital: Ying Khang, Douglas Fulmer, Helen Rincon, Casey VanSchaick, Brenda Hughes, Kimberly Wooten, Adam Siniard, and of course both of our families.
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