As you all know here at d19 we are looking to the future and feeling positive. However, following the strangest time of our lives, never mind the strangest time for the business, we also realise the importance of reflection. Our founder Dave asked the team to take a step back and reflect on how lockdown, and our own personal experiences of the pandemic, has made us feel. What has it made us appreciate and what have we missed from life pre-COVID?
There was a clear winner when hearing from the team and that was the ‘gift’ of time and a heartfelt appreciation for family. In the somewhat hectic pre-pandemic world, we all navigated our way manically through the day-to-day of rush hour, school runs, parties, events and dashing from meeting to meeting so this extra time has been a welcomed positive to take from the past 5 months. It seems that even COVID has a silver lining, a family-shaped one! We hear from the team as they reflect on this time.
‘The most positive thing is our family being more honest with each other about how we feel. We are coming through it as a unit rather than individuals.’
‘Quality time spent with the family and to focus on yourself and reflect on the simpler things in life.’
‘Chilling with the family. It gave me a once in a lifetime opportunity to spend a lot of time at home with the family’.
‘For me sitting down with the family for mealtimes has been great!’
‘Family time, watching my little girl grow and learn.’
‘A lot more family time – cards, Bake Off, Come Dine with Me, 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles!’
Along with family and finding true love (yes we have a lockdown love story in the team), the need for things that may have been considered as trivial pre-lockdown emerged as the things that kept us sane and were sorely missed, here’s a few from the team, in order of importance of course.
The pub, haircuts, friends, football, seeing people in real life for a wine and a chat, media lunches, beauty treatments and most importantly of all…each other!
All that said about time gained we can’t deny that here at d19 we simply are just doers, so amongst the romanticism of a new found family appreciation COVID has also uncovered some hidden talents and rediscovery for forgotten hobbies, be it tennis, golf, walking, exercising and even becoming a Instagram sensation…we have been a busy bunch and now we’re back to capacity on the good ship d19 we are not set to slow down any time soon. Oh, and talking about discoveries, Dan B brought us Marmite Peanut Butter and David Lucy has a pet lizard! Who knew?!
To conclude, a final reflection from Dave which made us all stop and think… ‘Sometimes it’s OK not to have the answers.’…we’re all human after all.
