A Personal Story about Perseverance and a Pandemic
The photo of the younger woman with the little kids is me. It was taken over 20 years ago and not long after my partner and I moved back from our 4-year stint in British Columbia and gave birth to our daughter, Sydney while renting a home in Collingwood. Soon after that we bought our first house, gave birth to our second child Jonah and Eric decided to quit his full time job and pursue our own graphic design/signage business in Thornbury, Ontario. My face looks fairly composed considering the stresses we were juggling. I had never planned to be a mother and wasn’t completely in tune with the process before it became necessary for me to also help Eric paint and apply vinyl to Talisman Resort billboard signs – with a monitor on as our babies slept. Like many new entrepreneurs (entre-poop-newers, Syd called us), we slept little and worried lots.
Fast forward to current day, whereby I am enjoying a fictional book written by Matt Haig which, in a nutshell, has the main character getting a look at all the different versions her life may have been based on following decisions made in her past. This led me to think about some of my own decisions and how this path that I’m on was never in my plan in my much younger life. Before reconnecting with Eric, I was freshly graduated from design school, I gave up an apartment in Toronto and moved into a small room within a friend’s home in order to save money and join a boyfriend in Australia. When that plan crashed, I had nowhere to go so I crawled back to my parents’ home, back to my old childhood bedroom feeling depressed and like a complete failure. When Eric and I got together again, all this changed for the better. We did move out west and he eventually convinced me that the two of us could create a pretty fantastic family. I was very skeptical but also open to the idea.
Every step we made thereafter was never planned nor was a crystal ball referred to. We took lots of leaps and trusted the net would follow. We’ve been lucky to have many successes but, like most, it did not come without failures and some bumps and bruises along the way. I mean think of it. Two creative types who are partners in life raising two kids together, turned into partners in business who had to learn to critique each other without resentment or daggers. It was tough at the beginning to have to tell one another an idea was not so great, especially when we convinced ourselves it was stunning and ingenious then turn around and enjoy a meal together at the family table.
Why am I pouring this out? Because we are all struggling through tough times right now and though we may have days of feeling like giving up, we have to reach within ourselves and reflect on our past battles to realize, we all have it in us to persevere and get through this challenge too. We have the stamina within us to survive and though our story is unique to us, the basic content applies to each of us. I wish us all the best through this pandemic.
