twenty voIces of 2o2o As a creative living on the edge of a coastal community, I seem to thrive on having a ‘project’ on the go - a renovation, an exhibition, and now a book. My passion is people. Nature, words, music and painting are my escapes. I live by simple values; be kind, be authentic, be bold. Tenacity is both my strength and my weakness. I’m proud of my Dutch heritage and the strongwomen that surround me - my oma, my mum and my three daughters. My university sweetheart Michael and I decided to move out from the city to be near the water around 14 years ago. I love being a stone’s throw from the beach and the bushland. This was what kept me sane during the second lockdown, pounding the pavement discovering new streets and reserves within my 5km radius. I wasn’t able to pick up my paint brushes due to limited space as we’d embarked on a major renovation. Normally my work is city-based, four to five days a week. I’ve been working from home for nearly a year now and counting. For the first time in 15 years, I have discovered the true meaning of work-life balance 2020 was always going to look different for our family, with a major renovation that had been on our ‘wishlist’ for several years, finally kicking off late 2019. What we didn’t know as we greeted 2020, was that we would all soon be grappling with a global pandemic that would grip the world and change life as we knew it. Planes were grounded, hospitality and retail needed to pivot quickly as restaurants, bars and shops closed. Toilet paper became a commodity, people stockpiled food and goods, and petrol prices plummeted by up to 40 per cent. The emptiness of the streets was unfamiliar and for many of us, oddly calming. School gates shut and students moved to online learning. Working from home became our ‘new normal’. We experienced our first virtual funeral, sat indoors watching the AFL Grand Final being played for the first time on Queensland soil and witnessed many crowdless public events including the Melbourne Cup. 40
We learnt new words and phrases – like social distancing, physical distancing, ‘rona’, 1.5, ‘keeping us apart keeps us together’, ‘unbutton for Sutton’ and ‘double donuts’. Words like ‘cases’, ‘tested’ and ‘positive’ brought on new meanings. We learnt to adapt, we learnt to live without, and we dug deep to find new strengths. Some were impacted more than others, and we all have our story. Most years are full for my family, but 2020 was particularly challenging. This was a time when my profession as a Change Manager took on personal significance. It’s my job to help people navigate through significant change, to remove uncertainty and to prepare them for what’s ahead. These skills became invaluable as I sought to guide our three children along the uncertain road before us as best I could. My number one goal was to stay calm, to quell signs of panic, so that the girls could keep learning and stay healthy minded. I remember 2020 as a year which required extreme patience and self-determination. It was a time when I was needing to motivate myself daily to keep moving and to keep positive. But it was also a time when I was needing to motivate my family to eat well, to exercise and to keep going. In 2020 we were under extraordinary pressure as a family with a renovation, and yet this was overshone by the need to adapt to living, working and schooling in the face of COVID-19. I often found myself stepping back and analysing our varying capacities to adapt. It was fascinating to observe how one’s individual outlook on life could play such a significant role in this; the growth mindset versus the closed, the empowered approach versus the disempowered. I witnessed extroverts struggling during lockdown whilst introverts revelled. At an organisational level, I saw cracks and strengths being pushed to the surface; with some businesses proving nimble enough to adjust to a new way of operating while others weren’t. This time also shone a light on people in leadership. There were those who focused
