Why You Should Show Up
Over the past few months I have learned the value of showing up even if I didn’t want to. The lockdown from March-June watered down my motivation and sucked the energy out of me and transformed me from an extremely extroverted person to someone with a low social battery. I wasn’t exactly less social, I just didn’t see a point to doing anything at all. There was no end in sight to the isolation and limited travel. It didn’t help that I had to move out of the dorms and living independent from my parents to moving everything back into my old room in the basement of their house. I had gotten laid off, the weather was still cold, and my vast social circle was cut down to 10. My daily routine consisted of waking up around 1pm and sitting on my phone until it was time for bed. I certainly couldn’t show up to events and I stopped showing up for myself. My fist step to getting back to being myself came with the warming of the weather. I started going for very long walks and thinking about what I wanted my life to look like. I would walk at least 7 miles every day thinking about who I wanted to be and what I wanted for myself. The fresh air and long walks were highly therapeutic and slowly got me back into a groove of working on my personal development. In May or June (I don’t remember, those months were a blur) my job opened up again and I finally had somewhere to show up and a minor bit of purpose added back to my life. Around that time I also started looking for roommates and an apartment. Tour places and meeting people got me out of the house and feeling significantly better, despite the masks and limitations of these experiences. I quit my job, found 2 new ones, and moved in to my new place on July 1st. The moment I moved out, my life became about showing up: for myself, for my jobs, for my future. I worked 8–12 hours every day and slowly put my new living space together. I was barely in the house and constantly working to build up my savings before classes started again. Showing up to work every day, combined with the determination I found on my long, therapeutic walks got me into a work flow that has lasted several months. That work flow fluctuates but it still is going strong. I started a network of artists called The Art Syndicate and found that working on this network is fulfilling, challenging, and growing me as a person. I have set up countless meetings and interviews with countless people and shown up to every single one. Every time I think I should cancel because of one reason or another, I still show up and I learn something new every time. Speaking with people gives me energy and motivation to continue working. The conversation gets my brain working and the people inspire me to progress my ideas and strengthen my skills. I have gotten back into podcasts, youtube, and I recently started attending community zoom calls to hear more stories about locals. Below is a list of the workshops, meetings, talks, and presentations put on by members of the community that I have attended and two meetings I will be attending tomorrow…
The Thunder Coffee 1 year anniversary on 10/09/2020
IDEAS Research Workshop|For the Sake of the Children on 10/23/2020 discussing non-traditional families
Epic Events on 10/23/2020
The Inaugural Art Show on 10/29/2020 and the meetings and planning that took place prior.
Aurthor Brooks’ speech on 11/03/2020
IDEAS Research Workshop with Dr. Rajshree Agarwal on “Fostering Enterprise and Creating Value in Trade”on 11/06/2020
“Art and Business Breakfast: Artists as Entrepreneurs” on 11/11/2020
“Bethany Berkeley — CEO Dale Carnegie MN & ND” on 11/19/2020
Epic Events on 11/20/2020
“IDEAS Research Workshop | Innovating Under Pressure and the Speeding Up of Organizational Life” on 11/20/2020
These talks have introduced me to problems I did not know existed and expanded on topics I find interesting. I have learned about the various effects family structure has on children and how beliefs differ from practice. I have seen behind the scenes of making community events happen with Epic Events and Thunder Coffee. I have heard stories of people fighting against the odds and taking risks for the sake of their futures from Dr. Rajshree Agarwal, Bethany Berkeley, Author Brooks, and numerous local artists from the Art and Business breakfast. With each event I showed up to, I got an extra burst of energy and information that has made me a more connected, well-rounded person. Because of the mindset I have adopted over the past 4 months, I am a completely different person and I feel more confident in my abilities than I ever have. I am completely unrecognizable from who I was during quarantine but, more importantly, despite the months of deprivation and slothfulness, I am better than the person I was pre-quarantine. Quarantine taught me that nothing new will happen if you don’t change your circumstances. Even if you can’t show up in person, you can still make calls. There is always a way to make your situation better and living through it has made me a much better version of myself.
