List #18: 30 Words To Describe Elements of My Pandemic Experience

30 Lists of 30 to Celebrate my 30th Birthday

Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash

The What & Why Behind This Project:

This year I turn 30. And my gosh, I have been thinking about it a lot. I don’t know if it’s the pandemic, or the fact that this milestone is loaded with many societal expectations, but my mind has inundated me with reflections and memories from the past, with questions arising about my life choices and lesson learnt, about my expectations of being a human and about my desires for the future. And this combined with pandemic reflections has meant there has been a lot on my mind….🤔

I started writing a series of questions and lists of all the elements I wanted to capture and articulate. There were a lot, unsurprisingly; 30 years is a long time really! So I gave up on the 1 list idea that I normally write (30 reflections/lessons turning 30) and decided to write 30 lists.

30 Lists of 30, for my 30th Birthday.

Who are these lists for, you might wonder? I started writing reflections many years ago to get to know myself better. And when I shared these raw and real accounts with friends I discovered that what I wrote about my individual journey, touched upon something universally human. Beyond the masks and labels we wear is a messy, beautifully complex life, with highs and lows. And more similar to others than we might think.

So I share them in the hope that you too might feel something — intrigue, joy, resonance or maybe even difference — as you reflect on what it means to be a human. I recognise that my experiences are my own, that some come from a place of privilege and that they may not all be relatable or interesting to you. I know I can’t please everyone, so take what you can…(and let me know what lands!).

So, Back to Lists…

The Why Behind List #18: 30 Words To Describe Elements of My Pandemic Experience

There had to be a list about the pandemic right? This period has been rich in experience — I have noticed I went through the full spectrum of emotions and felt tested in variety of ways at times. It also encouraged me to lean into parts of myself I hadn’t before which was surprisingly refreshing. Over the summer I hosted a series of dinners with friends and asked them the question ‘what three qualities or themes have emerged in you since the pandemic started’? The question was a hit and highlighted all the different ways we have been changed through the experience. It inspired me to go from 3 words to 30… here they are.

List #18: 30 Words To Describe Elements of My Pandemic Experience

1. Surrender — Leaning into the the reality of the moment, and not trying to resist it, even though I don’t want it
2. Patience — Allowing for myself, others and the world to not be at our best
3. Spontaneity — When nothing can be planned it created the space to lean into the moment
4. (Phone) calls — I went back to the day of just randomly calling friends, rather than scheduling, which was an absolute joy!
5. Savings — A great lesson in having a pot ready for when circumstances you can’t control arise, especially as a sole trader
6. Control — What can and can’t I control? To reduce stress at the beginning I wrote a list of each
7. Opportunity - what new ones arose when the circumstances changed? Virtual work created a global audience. A lack of work meant time to focus on health, learning and meditation
8. Creativity — When the standard ways became impossible, it created the freedom to always do something different
9. Emotional — All emotions on the spectrum. A good opportunity to learn to fully feel and express them
10. Risk — How to measure it and how it influences decisions
11. Expertise — For me this was about recognising myself as having expertise in connection and conversation and leaning into owning this
12. Boredom — What to do with oneself when one’s main activities are impossible?
13. Fake-news — What degree of certainty is needed for something to be the truth?
14. Leadership — Fascinating to see the different styles across nations and the impact this has on citizens and Covid rates
15. Fascinating — What a time to be living! This will make history
16. Togetherness — Learning to live with my family again after so many years apart
17. Disappointment — Few plans actually happening
18. Dependence — Realising I needed help and learning to lean onto others without losing my freedom or agency
19. Loneliness — Moments of loneliness and a real understanding of how crippling this can be if you’re often alone (e.g. elderly)
20. Endless — Long and with a continually moving end date
21. Groundhog-Day — Leaning into routine and losing some of the variety of daily life and realising how nurturing change can be for inspiration and fulfillment
22. (Re)Connect — Opportunities and excuses to touch in with people I haven’t connected with for a long time
23. Chaos — Overwhelming complex global changes that seemed hard to fix
24. Interconnectedness — We really do live in a global system where our individual actions have collective consequences
25. Resilience — Learning to get up from everything seemed to be crashing
26. Compassion — For self and other. Allowing all our imperfections to arise
27. Embodied — For me, this was about using the time to explore my body in a somatic light and realise that the body keeps the score
28. Kindness — The most important quality we can have for each other
29. Reflective — With so much change and experience, there is a lot to process and potentially make decisions on
30. Unfair — A striking difference in experiences across countries and backgrounds

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Your support will help me fund my PhD starting in October 2021 at the School of Design Engineering, Imperial College, London. The subject: Human Connection & Conversation Design. This research lab > interactionfoundry.com

Want To Read More Lists?

I’m publishing one list every day in August (and will add the hyperlinks below).30 Reasons Why I’m Writing 30 Lists of 30

1. 30 Questions I’m Living Right Now
2. 30 Ways To Have An Awesome Conversation
3. 30 Risks I Took & What I Learnt
4. 30 Ways to Create and Cultivate Community
5. 30 Questions I Reflect on Every Saturday Morning
6. 30 Essential Items I Pack Backpacking
7. 30 Skills We Need But Don’t Teach
8. 30 Things I Wasn’t That Grateful For But Am Now
9. 30 Reflective Questions that Lead to Fascinating Conversations
10. 30 Signs I am Most Definitely an Adult
11. 30 Beliefs I Changed about Myself & Life
12. 30 Games I’m Playing in Life
13. 30 Confusing Messages I’ve Internalised About Who To Be & How to Live
14. 30 Ways I’m Totally Imperfect
15. 30 Considerations for Designing Meaningful Human Connection Experiences
16. 30 Mundane Experiences That Can Actually Be Quite Magical
17. 30 Words To Describe Elements of My Pandemic Experience
18. 30 Things I’ve Learnt About Human Behaviour That Show Up Everywhere
19. 30 Words I Love
20. 30 Parts of Me
21. 30 Principles I Live By
22. 30 Lessons from 5 Years of Entrepreneurship and Creating
23. 30 Health, Productivity, Creativity and Happiness Optimisation Experiments I’ve Explored And The Life Hacks that Resulted From Them
24. 30 Things I am Proud of (Achieving) Before 30
25. 30 Experiences (& Goals) For the Next 10-ish Years
26. 30 Things I Need To Let Go As I Move Forward Into The Next Chapter
27. 30 Journal Entries from the Last 20 Years
28. 30 Lists That Didn’t Make it to the 30 Lists
29. 30 Reflections Writing 30 Lists of 30

Follow me on Medium to read them.

Still Curious?!

💬 Watch my TEDx talk: Talking to Strangers: Having a Meaningful Conversation

📖 Read about some of my work recently published in Entrepreneur.com How to Become a Master at Talking to Strangers

✍️ Stay connected through Conversations With Georgie: The Home of My Thoughts as a Life-Long Learner. Curious. Deep. Exploratory. Real and Raw.

📧 Contact Me: Georgie@Triggerconversations.co.uk