No Human is an Island

Around last year September, I took an 18-month break from being an active volunteer within the WordPress community, I also took the same break cycle from running our village hub, and a one-year break from any traveling.

I was mentally wrecked at the time by a lot of things.

Today, I feel better. I am not fully renewed, but I feel so much calmer and in a great state of mind. I have mastered the “Art” of choosing who and what I want to be bothered about and things that can indeed bother me!

Okay, I will admit the one-year no-travel break was a bit too much for me to handle, so I limited my travel to anywhere within West Africa 😁

This here is called Banku, a Ghanaian cuisine I was introducing to Bree 😀

I have seen quite of number of good reads here and there about our post-pandemic era and the terrible effects isolation during the COVID-19 period caused for a lot of people. Some other articles talked about how remote work was not ideal and how hybrid should be the way forward.

I don’t have a take on this as I can’t speak for everyone, but I would say it’s safe to ask everyone to do what works for them.

Some of us thrive in solitariness, we yearn and live for it. It’s also safe to say I am not a social butterfly because I intentionally choose the places I want to be. Yorubas are known for OWAMBEs every weekend. My Mom’s friend offered to take me to places the other day, saying I needed to go to parties and stuff, I told her I would think about it.

As a Yoruba-born girl with Hausa and Egun lineage; the glitter, noise, loud music, lights, and everything about an OWAMBE gives me a headache when it exceeds a number of hours. I can only stand a party/gathering for one to two hours, 5 hours being the maximum and that would most likely be a conference close to my heart; and it definitely cannot happen every weekend 🥵

I do like going out, yes, going to a club once in a year or five isn’t bad either; but I am very intentional about where I go to.

The other argument for a hybrid work model emphasizes networking as a reward. I mean if you do not go out to places, events, or parties, how do you meet people?

Well, how do you meet people? I want to read from you in the comment area. Please share!

I am learning to take on hobbies that have absolutely nothing to do with work while I am learning to define the hours I work. This has been hugely rewarding and I am excited about discovering new things that are not work-related aside from “Sleeping” ☺️.

I attended an event last month, the SheCodeAfrica Summit, and that was fun, seeing people everywhere, watching other people being impacted, and listening to the speakers sharing great insights. I attended because I wanted to remind myself why I hosted events in the past, why I enjoy giving back to my society, and what it feels like to have so many people gathered for a purpose.

Spotted myself in the SheCodeAfrica Summit 23 Album

Picture Reference: I had gone outside with another sister to take photos when a cool bloke with a DSLR asked if he could take my photo, so I posed for the camera and found myself in the Event Album 🥳

No Human is an Island, that is sacrosanct.

You can however be intentional about the people you want to give access to your Island, what other Islands you want to visit, and when you want to do so.

Personally, I am grateful for technology and how it has evolved allowing me to stay in touch, communicate, and live the way I want while still being able to network with folks from around the world, digitally. And yes, there are quite a number of people I hope to meet in person one day and if the day does not come, however, I am grateful we got to meet and stay in touch virtually.

That said, I hope the internet NEVER goes down. But hey, if it does, we can all go out and touch some grass. I found this cool quiz to know if you need to go and touch grass or not by Zikoko mag, “Try It”, I got Never 😂😂!

Why Zikoko, why, I touched the grass all weekend

What are your thoughts? Share in the comments!