Roundtable – All Staff
How Have You Been Lucky During the Past Year?
(aka what are you grateful for)
Jodie
Who could have imagined the year we were to have one year ago? 2020 was A LOT. However, I would never wish away that year. Yes, we could’ve gone without the deadly virus and the riots. That was AWFUL. But I feel lucky that for once in my life I was able to really be with my kids. The stigma from working from home is no longer. I feel lucky that 2020 was a year of togetherness that will forever live in my children’s memories. Furthermore, I feel so lucky to have not lost any close family or friends to Covid. We are in the home stretch now!
Kelly
One of my favorite quotes is by Thomas Jefferson. He said, “I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more luck I have.” While this is true, I do feel fortunate in the sense that the people I care about have remained healthy. I feel so badly for those who lost loved ones and for those who are still suffering the long term effects of COVID. I also feel very fortunate that we were able to serve our clients while keeping our team safe and gainfully employed.
Michael
Though at times it has been stressful, and it can be a lot of work, I feel lucky to have been able to spend so much time at home with my kids. It’s easy to miss out on them growing up in the pre-Pandemic world; hopefully we can keep that going in the future. I feel lucky for the people in my life; my coworkers, my wife, my family, and my close friends have all been great support for me, and I for them. It’s created a sort of positive mental health feedback loop that has been great. I check in with people and talk to my friends now more than ever before 🙂
Jessica
Interesting to think about luck versus fate. I have always seen myself as more of a fate person as in the fact that things happen because of a premeditated, divine force. Luck, both bad and good, happens by chance. Again, I like to believe that nothing happens by chance. Things arise because of the choices I’ve made and/or the work I’ve put in to make them possible. What does all this mean? For example, my husband and I are not together because I was lucky to find him. I believe we are together because God knew we needed each other – or fate. Cliche, I know. The only thing I can think of in regards to luck, in my opinion, is flipping a coin – you have a 50/50 chance to guess it correctly 😉 All left up to chance! P.S. As I’m sure my husband can attest, I’m almost always right … even with a coin flip.
Phil
With all of the chaos that surrounded 2020 and now following us into 2021, I am grateful for staying afloat and for my family to have maintained good health. Even with all of the changes and adjustments to life (School at home, WFH, social distancing, etc.), my kids have done a great job in school and seem to have learned more during this time at home with us being there to help, one on one. We have not suffered any financial instability and have even been able to still make some upgrades, by working on home improvement projects and finding/enjoying new hobbies (ice fishing, snowboarding with the kids). We even decided that to remain social, we needed to have a “QuaranTEAM”. So we banded up with one of our closest family friends to keep busy and active. There is always something to be grateful for, even in the worst times.
Ethan
I’m lucky to have people in my life who were mindful of keeping themselves safe during the pandemic. Because of this, I was able to still see people regularly without as much concern of spreading the virus, and none of us got sick! I’m also grateful that I got to keep working through the pandemic. All of these things really eased the stress brought on by 2020. I’m incredibly fortunate that I got to feel like my life kept moving forward in a time when things were much more difficult for a lot of people.
Brit
I’ve been extremely lucky in 2020. Before all-things COVID and the world shutting down, my mom and I were lucky enough to take our first mother-daughter vacation to Nashville in January 2020, we had a blast and made so many memories. I’m so lucky my dad has made almost a full recovery from a leg amputation and other medical struggles last year, truly a miracle. I’m lucky my fiance, Mike, and I moved in together and got engaged. I’ve been lucky in that I can successfully work from home with Gaslight and have been able to work through the pandemic.
