Everything can change in a New York Minute
Looking back, it was like watching the trailer to a surreal movie in slow motion unable to find the stop button March 2020. The week leading up to lockdown was definitely showing bizarre signs of what lay ahead without us all knowing it and as we all avidly followed the news updates it became very apparent that this impending virus was steam-rolling day by day, then hour by hour. It was not going away and was all my team & students could talk about: they were, rightly very concerned.
Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency in New York City.
In-between leaving work on Friday and returning Monday morning the whole world changed and I had no idea what to do. I was the Executive Director of 2 Cosmetology Schools in NYC and responsible for a team, student body & facility. I stayed glued to the TV and social media all weekend in disbelief as one-by-one whole infrastructures announced closures as per Governor Cuomo's Executive Order & non essential workers were advised to work from home as emergency state mandates were announced.
Side Note: Regardless of what lay ahead for Cuomo I firmly believe that NY would have fared much, much worse without his strength, leadership, firm directive and daily briefings which became the highlight of the day to New Yorkers.
During a novel coronavirus conference call briefing, Governor Cuomo announces the State Department of Financial Services will require insura
Not sure what to do I did what I did every day and went to work, not really sure what I would find. I had recently moved from living within walking distance to work in SoHo NYC to commute from outside of Manhattan. The journey that morning was filled with tension & empty seats as I had no idea what lay ahead. One-by-one my team apologetically called out for the day filled with fear of commuting and being around others in our School & Academy, I told them I would be in touch asap with a plan when I had met with our owner. Surprisingly 10 students showed up where I promptly sent them home and told them we would be voluntarily closing today ahead of the start of the enforced shut down scheduled from tomorrow in order for all to stay safe, I would be in touch later in the day and see them in 2 weeks (famous last words!)
It was determined our locations would close and we would see how the week played out. Everyone was scared of the unknown however it really was an unwanted taster of the impending shock & absolute disbelief that would consume the next few weeks before real life fear kicked in. Living in NYC for 12 years at that time I thought I had seen it all; hurricanes, floods, black-outs and so much more but this was like nothing else ever imagined in my lifetime.
As time went on and it became apparent this was not going away and was increasing daily, our lives became consumed with the purpose of our collective new mantra of "flatten the curve." I continued to go to work for the remainder of the week to work on next steps & monitor the situation stopping only to watch The Governor's daily briefing showing the latest increase in numbers & spread while his Instagram posts became the only ones in my feed of any value.
We had 100+ current students studying Cosmetology, Barbering & Esthetics, classes scheduled to graduate, new classes scheduled to start, kits scheduled to be delivered, schedules planned, a new program to implement & get accredited, an impending inspection visit, weekly advanced and on the road classes and so much more. Then the carpet was well and truly pulled from under our feet so by Friday our small skeleton team had tricked home & finally I went home not knowing when we would return and see each other again.
Although the Training School was not my business I treated it as if it was: I had started the school, got it licensed & accredited, written all the programs, hired & trained all the staff and purchased every piece of furniture & equipment, I did not want to see it shut down never to reopen but literally at the time it was impossible to continue safely so we paused and waited. I had no idea at this time of the future worldwide extent of the pandemic and from a personal level the hoops I would have to jump through to for the School to adjust direction to fight to remain in business and to keep myself & our team employed.
In hindsight we had absolutely no idea the pandemic would still be around and potential cause for concern 2 years later as we aimed to get through every day safely the best we could and make it to the next day. I write this now March 2022 to remind myself of the severity of the situation & emotions we all went through on a daily basis and how it actually felt at the time as our outlook now is very different than it was then: during the darkest times I really thought it was the end of the world and I may never see my family & friends again.
To distract myself I began to walk around the empty streets just to check the world was still there and I was not the only survivor in a real life disaster movie At first it felt weird taking my camera so I just took my phone and felt guilty for every photo I took: like I should not be there without purpose but gradually felt more comfortable and my walk was the only normal in life and the thing to look forward to. As a landscape/cityscape photographer I was used to walking around empty streets early morning to gain a different perspective however this was like nothing I had ever experienced, as all the people had literally disappeared and the streets simply stopped.
Living overseas for an extended time has provided me with amazing benefits that I couldn't possibly list here and having lived in 2 additional different countries than my UK home for over 20 years I highly recommend it to all however living alone, overseas during a global pandemic is not something I could have ever imagined or planned for. My work was my daily focus and after being furloughed for 2 weeks it became apparent that if I was to keep myself and our team in their jobs then I would have to develop a temporary distance learning system that had value for the students, fulfilment for the teachers and was results driven not just time-filler and distraction. It was a big job however I knew I could do it & more importantly had to do it for the benefit of all, not least, myself.
Prior to March 2020 I would never have considered integrating, hosting or attending any type of Online/Distance learning as I personally could not see the significance yet it has now become so normal and part of every day life that I have personally learned to embrace & value.
Everything really can change in a New York Minute!
For more reading see "Developing an unexpected Temporary Distance Learning system for practical programs"