Staying positive in a pandemic (a personal story)

This was first written in 2021. I pondered whether to share this as a moment. It is from my blog The Big Test Theory, which will shortly be no more. In the end, I decided it was a positive story about a tricky time for all of us, and a devastating one for many people. So here you are.

TL;DR 

I know it can be hard, but to look for the positives in any situation. This post covers things that have happened in my life and how I’ve tried to respond to them. 

My motivation for writing this is to highlight the positive things that have happened to me during these trying times. I appreciate that everyone's experiences will be different and by no means mean to diminish any mental health effects this time has had on me or others. That said, I’ve always been one who tries hard to find positives in any situation. It was really clarified for me when I watched former professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page (yes, I’m a big wrestling fan) talk about living life at 90%. He said life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. If you want to hear more, the link is in the references below. 

To give you some perspective, please let me share a couple of things that have happened to me in my life. When I was 7, I crossed the road without looking, stepping in front of a car I’m informed was doing ‘at least’ 45 miles an hour in a 30 zone. My mother was told I wouldn’t walk unaided if I woke up from my coma. Spending half a year in hospital, then visiting regularly over the next couple, wasn’t exactly fun, but I was alive. Over the years I’ve managed to play football, cricket and rugby with a modicum of success. I ‘mostly’ walk unaided these days and have back pain daily, but I really appreciate that fact I can still go out walking sometimes. 

Since I started working full time in 1983, I’ve been made or put at risk of redundancy 8 times overall. While very scary, I’ve looked at these as opportunities to reassess and work out my next move. Maybe some of that was because they were just jobs to me. Not what I feel I have now which is a career and to some extent a vocation. Sometimes nothing happened apart from the worry. Sometimes I had to reapply or re-interview for my role. 3 times I had to look for something new. For some reason I’m quite proud of the fact that since 1984 I’ve only been unemployed twice, the first time for 3 months and the second for just short of 6 weeks. 

At the start of last year, I made the decision to leave my job and handed in my notice before I started looking for a new role. I was overly ready for a new challenge. I found what I can only describe as a dream job. It had everything, from the opportunity to travel. It also included a conference allowance and the added bonus of training people. A couple of days before I was due to start this great new role on the 23rd of March, the offer was withdrawn. If the 23rd of March sounds familiar, it is because that was the first day of the UK lockdown and what prompted the company to suspend all recruitment. 

As I had decided to have a week's holiday in between moving roles, that meant I started the first lockdown with no job! At first I used my normal techniques of looking for positives. The weather was beautiful, and my wife and I spent quite a lot of time in the garden. I did have a really bad week around the third week, to be transparent. It felt like everything was on top of me, but things like the Self Care Backpack’s resources were a real help. There’s a link in the references.

I used my network to highlight my position, saying I was available for training, etc., while I searched, and it opened the door for me to do my very first webinars. I’m very grateful to Drew, then at DisplayLink and to Corecom Consultants for the opportunities they gave me. Without this happening, I might never have had people point me to Sonocent. Interestingly, 3 different people highlighted this to me, 2 who I wasn’t connected to at the time. That’s one of the reasons why I retweet and share posts where others are in similar situations and looking for their next opportunity. 

Remote interviewing was interesting, seeing the different ways in which companies tried to do it. I was fortunate that in the end I had 2 offers on the table for the roles I had formal interviews for. While the other was more money, I decided to join Sonocent, and after a year with the company, I couldn’t be happier with my decision. The absolute highest compliment I can pay them is to say they treat me and everyone there like human beings. 

Over the last year, I’ve spoken for the Ministry of Testing and run a 99-Minute Workshop. I’ve helped create and deliver a free Software Testing Bootcamp with The Coders Guild to help people get into tech. I’ve been published in magazines and contributed to a book raising money for charity called Testing Stories. 

I feel so fortunate that as a kid from a rough council estate in Keighley who was told I was only fit for manual work, I’ve been able to thrive and help others along the way. I put a lot of my success down to staying positive as much as possible. As we move a little closer to ‘normal’, whatever that looks like for you. I hope you can find the positives in life too. 

Thanks for reading.

Update: My back pain is much reduced, as the source of my issues was one leg longer than the other due to the accident and the healing my leg underwent. Lifts have made a huge difference in my life. It's just a shame it took 4 decades to find out.