A Stark Reminder

When I think back to March 2020, we were all sent home to work as lockdown struck and I thought to myself, excellent - I’ll get tax return filing season out the way and then we’ll all be back in the office. Back to normal to enjoy the summer. I was quite clearly way off the mark on that one.

As the weeks rolled on, the strain of being isolated at home began to take its toll. I missed my family back home in the U.K. and working alone at my kitchen island turned out to be pretty boring.

It was around that time, when the reality of being away from my family in the midst of a global pandemic was really hitting, that I was told I had been nominated for the Women in Leadership programme, and it would go ahead digitally despite the pandemic.

I admit, I instantly felt a bit robbed that we wouldn’t get to do it in person but it would at least be something to occupy me while science did it’s thing looking for a vaccine. I thought the WiL programme would be good but that there would be no way I would make the deep connections previous participants raved about through Google Meet. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I was catapulted into a network of strong, caring, considerate and open individuals. I still can’t believe my luck. We had session after session on leadership, core values, empathy, story telling, inclusivity - each one more thought provoking than the last. I was a sponge soaking up all of this new information while forging relationships with incredible leaders.

The pandemic for a lot of people has provided the time (maybe too much..) and space for people to have huge reckonings about their life and what direction they want to go in - yes, in their career but also in life too.

I am unbelievably fortunate that I got to go through that with not just my ever supportive partner, but a whole village of women in the WiL programme encouraging each other every step of the way.

It has served as a stark reminder to me that, as we all shared and learned (and cried) through WiL, we are all human even if we just appear as little icons in gmail most of the time. Everyone has their own story and things they are going through.

Fast forward a year and I am full of renewed hope. Hope for my family as my grandparents and mum have already received their vaccine. Hope for my career as I feel revitalised thanks to the WiL programme. Hope for all of my fellow WiL’ers who I know will go on to accomplish great things.

I can’t wait to see where life takes us all.