The Pandemic:How It Made Me Fall
In Love… All Over Again
By BRANDON DEBENEDET
For all of our fellow Americans who are out of work and struggling to get by, or have tragically lost someone, our thoughts and prayers are with you through this more than abnormal time. That being said, we are bombarded with media coverage every minute of every day of the global COVID19 Pandemic. So I thought I would take a few minutes to share some light-hearted sentiments of (WFH) working from home this past month.
Humans are creatures of habit, and when we have something come up in our lives that shifts the paradigm it can create utter havoc in our “wash, rinse, repeat” daily lives. My cycle for instance Monday through Friday entails waking up at an ungodly hour, make my way to the bathroom half asleep for personal hygiene time, downstairs to feed the pups, coffee, breakfast for the family, help the wife get Haleigh ready for school, sit in the car line for kid drop, then off to the office where I spend 10 – 12 hours (way more than home) doing the PEO thing. Try and make it home before pitch black, have a way too late to eat dinner, quick walk with family and pups, then off to bed… 5:00am next day; repeat. Sound familiar?
Now here we are turning all that upside down. Kids home for what’s now an endless summer, trying to finish what’s left of curriculum over a Zoom app, going bonkers from being cooped up to long, parents trying to manage video conferencing, meetings, deadlines, and worload with one or the other being too loud (me) and not being used to seeing each other for such long durations. Not to mention trying to figure out how to order equipment for WFH, desks, monitors, ergonomic chair, and creature comforts along with the sporadic at best supply chain line for necessities, groceries, and such… Havoc.
Don’t get me wrong here, I am very proud of our Synuity family. Our team’s resilience to keep plugging through, pivoting at the drop of a hat for business continuity, client support, and peer to peer “I got your back” culture. I am very fortunate to have a stable debt free company, amazing client base, and not being faced with having to layoff team members to stabilize. What I am getting at is the “good” in all of this. Yes, there are some positives with the life altering times we are experiencing, at least from my point of view.
Family; not all of us have one, or some may be way different from others and it may not be immediate, but more of a mixed bag extended version. Mines both, and I am darn lucky to have it. It has taken all this Pandemic stuff to make me realize that I sure took it for granted. I have a 7 year old daughter Haleigh who is the most beautiful, smart, athletic, loving, amazing kid I have ever laid eyes on (typical Dad thing to say). Really, she is, and I have missed 70% of her 7 short years sadly to say being a “career first” Dad. Of course I love my daughter, but I have seriously fallen in love with her all over again! I get to spend way more time with her now helping with school work (although my wife does most of it with her), drawing, doing crafts, making Tye Dye shirts, playing games, and my favorite… all the random hugs followed by telling eachother “I love you” sporadically through the day. We have done so many new things I could never imagine. For instance, I’m a 6’ overweight guy who has never played basketball, nor am I built to. Yet here I am with a 10’ pro style basketball setup in our driveway and now take time each day to shoot hoops with my bestie.
My wife is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Without her I couldn’t do what I do nor could I keep our lives functioning. She is a machine to say the least. Deanne is an appeals Nurse for an insurance company who already was WFH, so there wasn’t much change for her in that front. The big change was from me turning her world upside down by being home all the time, and figuring out how to support Haleigh’s scholastic responsibilities and her work load. I have a new appreciation for her for sure, and can see how hard it is when I am not here.
I have the best parents in the world. I am very fortunate to have two great parents in great health and spirit. It is killing them to not be able to spend time with us. I can tell as my Dad calls me once a week to check up on our TP supply and general well being. Over Easter they drove over with their own lawn chairs, coolers, and goodies for Haleigh, sat out front of the lawn socially distanced, and we had an old fashioned egg hunt (with sanitized eggs and supplies of course).
Blessings are countless when it comes to great neighbors and co-workers. I’m even surprised how much I miss not being surrounded by the day to day hustle and bustle of normal life. The imaginary border surrounding our property lines inhibiting the kids & adults from having fun and chatting about this and that can’t return fast enough. Even the simple quick lunch with the team will taste way different going forward giving pause for how important those out of work moments are for each of us.
The one thing that I will take out of all this change is to cherish each moment going forward no matter how small or insignificant the blip of time may seem; it is an opportunity to fall in love all over again with the ones you love…
