This isn’t my usual type of blog post. I’m not worrying about SEO or keywords. Or sticking to my educational content. I just want to share what’s on my mind and have a place to document my thoughts during these weird times. After all, that’s what blogs are about for a lot of people. A space to document and share, and this is the essence of what building a personal brand is all about.
After this post I intend to share a lot more value based content around this topic, but for now I just want to share my experience. Because I believe in times like this, it’s more important than ever to share your story. To help people realise they’re not alone. And to find comfort in the knowledge that we’re all going through this together.
So, here’s my experience over the last few weeks…
Friday 13 March 2020 – my boyfriend was on his way home after 6 weeks working away to save funds for our upcoming Philippines trip. We got word from the couple that the wedding we were travelling for was to be cancelled as all internal flights in the Philippines were cancelled indefinitely. Up until that point I hadn’t really given coronavirus a lot of thought. Except for laughing at all the idiots stockpiling toilet paper and making Australia look ridiculous. And at this point I was just upset that it was causing us a huge inconvenience.
Saturday 14 March 2020 – Triple J’s Hottest 100 of the Decade was on so we decided to forget about the situation and just enjoy ourselves. Dancing and reliving all my favourite musical memories from the decade made me feel a bit better for the time being.
Sunday 15 March 2020 – the day we were meant to be flying out. We were upset and frustrated. But knowing there’s not really much else we could do we just got on with it.
Monday 16 March 2020 – I went about my daily life as normal. Gym, work at the restaurant, work on my business, spend time with Freddie. We noticed a decline in visitors to the restaurant and realised people might be taking this a little bit more seriously. At that point I was still thinking they were being over the top and this isn’t a lot to worry about. I even recorded my podcast episode where I mentioned it could be a conspiracy coordinated by governments. Lol, now who sounds like an idiot?!
Wednesday 18 March – I still didn’t really believe the coronavirus was a lot to worry about. It hadn’t hit that close to home, we were still allowed to go about our daily lives as normal. It was meant to be the day of the wedding. Our friends who were meant to be coming to the Phillipines as well came to stay with us. We went for a hike in the forest to make ourselves feel better about not being away. It started to become a bigger deal in America and lots of entrepreneurs I follow on social media started to talk about isolation and quarantine and the reality of it all.
Thursday 19 March – I had my last shift at the restaurant, it was extremely quiet and I left hoping that the weekend would pick up. Even though we didn’t have one booking for Saturday night which is extremely unusual by that late in the week.
Friday 20 March – we decided to go away to Moreton Island for the weekend, again to make us feel better for not being island hopping in the Philippines as we were meant to start a tour this day. I went about my day as usual – gym first, coffee for everyone, supermarket to stock up on food for the weekend, packed bags, and then we headed off. We arrived on the island and realised they were taking social distancing pretty seriously. Signs everywhere, and we weren’t even allowed to dance in the bar because they didn’t want people getting close to one another.
Saturday 21 March – we spent the day exploring the island and just trying to ignore the news. Our friend’s girlfriend is from Canada and she had everyone from home contacting her about the borders closing soon. So we decided to just ignore our phones and enjoy the moment.
Sunday 22 March – we arrive back to the Sunshine Coast and realise the situation is getting more dire. The news is talking about borders closing in Australia. International flights were already on hold last week, and now interstate flights are slowly dwindling away as well. Tasmania, Northern Territory and South Australia have closed their borders. And then West Australia followed suit. This one hits me the worst, in the back of my mind I had a contingency plan. If things got really bad Freddie and I could go back to Perth and at least be around family and friends. Now that’s off the cards. I still go to bed in pretty bright spirits.
Monday 23 March – I get up to go to the gym and see on FB that this is the last day they’ll be open for the unforeseeable future. I listen to the radio on my way to the gym and learn that all non essential businesses are to close as of 12pm today. That’s gyms, nightclubs, restaurants, bars, cafes etc. Restaurants are only allowed to operate via takeaway. I’m out of a job. This part doesn’t worry me too much because I know the government has rolled out an extensive stimulus package to support us all. And I’m looking forward to using the extra time to focus on my business more. But it saddens me for all the local businesses that are going to really feel the brunt of this. It’s a weird day. I feel a bit in limbo. I spent some time in my car listening to Italian music and crying for the state of the country of my heritage. I came home and had a pretty unproductive day, just feeling and processing. I did some journalling and turned to my oracle cards for guidance. And now I feel much better about it all.
But here’s me processing a bit more…
Wow, how quickly life can change. One minute we’re sitting on our friend’s boat exploring a beautiful island, the next Australia is heading towards complete lockdown. Scenes emerging out of our country and around the world over recent weeks have felt unreal. Like scenes out of an apocalypse film. Which is kind of weird because Freddie and I have been binge watching Z Nation over recent months. And now it feels like that’s going to be our life. Minus all the zombies, but you know what I mean.
I know we’re a little behind the rest of the world. My friends and family in Italy, the UK, USA and Canada for example, have already been experiencing this new normal. So it was only a matter of time before Australia had to follow suit.
Last week I was angry and frustrated that our liberties were being taken away. I felt confused and shocked and like our governments were just trying to control us. We’re meant to live in a free world and now we’re being told to stay at home, we can’t travel, we can’t do this. It just didn’t seem right. I was still remaining positive but I wasn’t really accepting reality. But now, I understand the importance. We need to flatten the curve.
How weird is that? A few months ago we didn’t even know that term. Or if we did, it wasn’t a part of mainstream vocabulary. Now suddenly our vocabularies are full of terms we’ve never really used. Social distancing, social isolation, quarantine. Trust me to comment on language lol. And once we realise how suddenly the world can change, how we react is even more critical.
It’s definitely a time where we’re all being faced with a totally different way of life. We have to forget our current conditioning and adapt to this new normal.
I’m not sharing any of this to complain. I know I’m still in a great situation. I’m just sharing my experience as we navigate through these weird and unprecedented times. Because now, more than ever, I believe it’s important to keep showing up and sharing my story. And I encourage you to keep (or start)sharing yours as well. This is going to be our way of staying connected and supporting each other through these trying times.
Many people are suddenly out of work, but we’re lucky we’ve got a government that is striving to support us with their newly announced stimulus packages.
We’ll be forced to live quite solitary lives for the time being. But it’s necessary to ensure we all stay safe. And after being quite solitary for the last few years, I’ll share a post with some of my top coping tips over the coming days.
While it might all seem strange and unthinkable, now is our chance to rewrite the way we live. To develop a new normal. A lot of us have been given the gift of lots of extra time, time we complained we didn’t have, time to slow down, to be, to spend with ourselves and our loved ones and realise what’s truly important.
How we choose to use that time is up to us. I for one will be engrossing myself in my business, reading more books, learning more skills. Providing more resources and education for people who may now be realising that working online isn’t such a scary concept after all. And it may very well be the way of the future.
I’m choosing to stay positive. I watch the news to find out important updates, but then I turn it off. We have to protect our minds more than ever, there’s so much fear and negativity spreading. Yes, it’s important to stay informed, but it’s also important to protect your mental wellbeing. So do what feels right for you, but I highly recommend choosing one credible source, getting your daily updates, and then feeding your mind with positivity.
And on that note, I want to share with you a message I pulled from my oracle card deck this morning:
My sister bought me this cute Alice in Wonderland oracle card deck for Christmas and I’ve been pulling cards out daily for the last few months.
I love this part of my morning routine and the cards always give me the perfect message.
This morning I wanted to pull one out for my Instagram audience as a way of reassuring them we’ll all get through this.
I loved the message so much I felt called to share it with you too. I hope it brings you some calm in these uncertain times.
And as you navigate your way through this experience I encourage you to start sharing your story online. This is the perfect moment to connect and build your brand through the art of storytelling.
And if you’re not sure how to do it, let me show you how.
Above all, I hope you are embracing this new normal and looking for opportunities that are being presented to you.
Energy is contagious. This will pass and if we stay positive we will all come through stronger than ever. ??
Love and light,
Jade xo
