Recognize something like that? That could save your life in 2020.
This week four years ago began the last normal week we would experience before everything shut down. The COVID 19 outbreak was spreading like wildfire and cases were already being confirmed out west. Precautions were already being taken in big cities like Seattle and San Francisco. There was talk of March Madness being affected as well as the start of the Major League Baseball season.
I started the week as I usually did, beginning another workweek at WIS. I came off the heels of another great Toastmasters area event, the last one before the Division contests would begin. We took precautions and fist bumped rather than do the traditional shaking of hands. After the contest, we met at nearby Oakmont bakery and caught up on life.
Let’s go back a few weeks, though. I mentioned area contests and there were two memorable ones in Cranberry on a Thursday night and Saturday morning in Johnstown. I braved the snow to make my way to both events. My fashion journey was just beginning (before I broke status quo) and I was asked if I had a fashion designer friend. I met up with some of the Elk County Toastmasters after our contest at Applebee’s.
Let’s now go even further, back to 2019. It was an up and down year that started out with me going back to my old job and learning that my grandmother had cancer. Coming back to WIS meant I was able to take off my weekends and enjoy the contests and upcoming District conference. I watched some of my friends in the Cranberry High Noon club celebrate their high achievement by doing a “DTM Huddle”. However, things got worse in the Spring as my Grandma’s health took a turn for the worse and one of my main co-workers quit after a bad night. It was a quiet summer in which I took vacation close to home and went back to my Grandma’s house. I was now living by myself after her passing early in June.
That Fall everyone who quit came back and for once, I enjoyed my job. But that wouldn’t last long. I got my Distinguished Toastmaster award, celebrated with my club during our Open House, and received a proclamation from a representative. Most memorable was our overnight work trip in Ashtabula which started my fashion journey. I ended my longstanding SRU Homecoming tradition and attended my first ever Fall Symposium with District 13 Toastmasters in October.
I started my blog just before Thanksgiving, and posted a lot early on in 2020, which brings us to March.
It’s late in the week, the last normal week of our lives before things changed forever. We’re learning news of the Coronavirus at work and at a conference call as our upcoming Spring Conference may be affected. That Friday I’m at Target in Monaca and I learn that upcoming events have been cancelled. Who knew that it would be the start of two months off of work and conditions coming after we would come back? The Office Max in Greensburg the next day would be the last event we’d have for a quite a while.
Soon after, all upcoming Toastmasters events and other major gatherings would be cancelled. We would soon be introduced to Zoom, which is how we held our meetings and trainings for the next year. The Major League Baseball season was pushed back, and March Madness was cancelled. My fashionable sister and her fiancé were getting married on May 16 but it would have to be a small ceremony. Terms like social distancing, six feet apart, and quarantine became household names. Masks, mandates, and work from home would soon become the norm. Hand sanitizer and toilet paper flew off the shelves.
The country and the world was officially in lockdown.
Stylish 🍒 