About school…

On Saturday we went to a secondary school open day and it has been extremely interesting.

This reminded me that I wanted to talk about another big change we went through while absent from these pages…with a drizzle of complaint about the world and society!

Nothing too heavy or long, I promise, as I don’t want to compromise the mood of my blog in any case. The issue is long gone, but I want to share it with you anyway, mostly because this episode bothered me and my daughter and, by venting here, I hope I could help someone else, saying they’re not alone and that you can find a solution!

Maya had been in the same school since she was 4 and half and it looked like a real nice one.

However, in the past two years something changed. Some of the girls became bolder and more aggressive and she didn’t manage to find a way to protect herself.

As you might remember we joined a dojo around the same time, mainly to try and create a safe spot for her and, at the same time, make sure to boost a bit her self confidence.

After the quarantine and the home schooling period the situation precipitated.

The girls in that school became more aggressive, there had been many cases of violence in between pupils in several classes. We complained with the school, I had many calls with the teacher and the principal, but the school wasn’t able to control or solve the problem.

My daughter was poked, pushed on the stairs, slapped, choked with her own coat, abused verbally, just to name a few episodes. And guess what, after every call I made, the situation got worse.

We were so lost that we even consulted her favourite karate sensei for advice. He confirmed what we knew, such as that she shouldn’t fight back until it was strictly necessary; also he said that the solution would be to try her best to become a warrior monk, whose primary skill would be rage control. (An advice I took for myself too, as sometimes I struggle with my anger!)

Maya tried really her best, but we reached a point where I stopped sleeping for the fear she was pushed badly on the stairs and would break something the next day.

Hence we decided to move her in another school and start afresh.

She was super excited after finding our she’d be in class with one of her oldest and best friend who moved from her old school a couple of years earlier. She managed to adapt extraordinarily quickly to the new school life and mingled with all the kids in her class. She also joined different school activities and is very happy.

Despite my happy ending I am still wondering from time to time about our past experience. I’m not sure what happened exactly, but it seems that this long quarantine took the worst out of people and also those bad habit or behaviours constantly and steadily worsened. In kids this is more evident.

Luckily they’re not all like this, as Maya attended also karate camps at the dojo the whole summer and she had so much fun she wanted to live there!

So where does the difference stay? Who’s responsible for this? I have my opinion, but I would like to know what you think in the comments below! Write to me!

I’ll talk to you soon.

Going out after two years! – The dinner

Hello my dear reader, I hope you had a nice week!

Here I am with the second news!

It’s been two intense years, and I’m sure many of you agree with me on the fact that this pandemic changed a lot in our lives.

Being an extremely anxious person and also highly hypochondriac I’ve lived holed up in my house for over one year, with the bare minimum contact with the world.

When we started to create the team here in Dublin we were just a seven of us, and after a couple of months we decided that talking only to the upper half of our colleague wasn’t so fulfilling and we decided to go for a dinner out!

After a lot of debating within myself, my fear, my hypochondria and my anxiety, I agreed to venture our of the house and meet my new colleagues in the flesh.

Starting in a new workplace is fun but it’s not that easy anyway. This time around, everything was made online: the interview process, the onboarding, the training and so on.

You can see your colleague on screen but it doesn’t feel real until you meet them. You then realised they have legs too and it’s not a prank video program!

To be honest with you I was pretty nervous, not sure whether because I was meeting a bunch of new people I’d never seen in my life, or because it was the first time after so long I was leaving the house for something that wasn’t classified as grocery shopping…..well maybe a bit of both.

I remember that I took the bus still not sure of what I was doing, and, most of all, thinking I wasn’t feeling comfortable almost at all with that. I thought many time to get off it and go back home. But I pushed myself onward.

I got there first and started waiting. The more I waited the more nervous I was becoming and I was seriously thinking to retreat home and invent some last minute excuse because I wanted to run away.

Right when I was about to set off for the nearest bus stop the first colleague arrived. And she was very tall.

I didn’t remember I was so short!

I mean, I perfectly know I’m Smurf size, and I like to joke on it myself, but in two years at home, my measurement was assessed perfectly on my partner’s and daughter’s heights, so I didn’t have this reality check for a while.

Once they were all there I felt like Samwise Gamgee! Sorry, Frodo lovers, my Sam is the best!

Despite all this shaking and anxiety, once they started to arrive, I also began to relax. I felt at home in a way and I felt grateful also for having such lovely colleagues other than a job I like.

We ate outside at a pub I’d never been before. The food was super delicious and the chat amazing.

Overall I felt pretty stupid I had been so nervous before but couldn’t help.

It was a nice and pleasant surprise and I’m happy I went.

I’ll see you next time!

Thanks for reading!

New – not so new anymore – job!

Hello my dear readers, I’m aware the situation hasn’t changed a bit from two weeks ago…actually is getting worse, but I promised I would stop talking about it, I need this blog to remain my safe bubble.

As I’ve promised since I started again to write on these pages, let’s start with the first big news, which is partly the reason why I didn’t manage to update my blog until now – and also the reason why I skipped last week…

I’ll just say it: I got a new job!

Since I finally was working in my dream department, you may wonder why! Simply, because of the Covid pandemic, I lost my job in Beloland! (The last few weeks had been pretty hard with working from home and dealing with a totally new routine)

After that I decided to to take a break for a few months and then to look for a fresh new start in a new place!

This time the nickname for my new workplace would be NoteVille. You know I never use the real name of the companies I’m working for as I don’t think it relevant for the purpose of this blog!

It’s been almost one year now, but it’s still a fantastic, energetic, busy and creative environment.

And fast paced!

Now, I want you to concentrate on this last sentence, because it’s not what you think! I’m sure of it! When you hear ‘fast paced’ you usually think about something very active, fast….even faster…even faster than faster…how should I put it? Think about the fastest you believe it’s possible and it’s not even half of what it really is!

Despite that, I feel I’ve found my place!

I love this position, although it is slightly different from what I used to do the last five years I spent in Beloland.

Here I finally feel fully appreciated, considered and used for those skills that I didn’t believe would be ever considered skills anymore.

Mind that I’m not saying that in my old company I was never appreciated, but it was sporadic and by just a bunch of people, whom I dearly miss and still love a lot!

The thing that probably I love the most in my new position is the chance to use my creativity and my writing.

For every pros there is also cons, and here as well I’d have to deal with users, who, let’s say the truth, aren’t the smartest tool in the shed….but still, there wouldn’t be any job for people like me if everybody behaved, right?

What I’m very thankful for is an awesome leadership and colleagues.

Even if it’s true that I know the most of them only virtually, since the team grew so fast in such a little span of time, I feel at home and it’s a pleasure to go to work in the morning….well to get to the kitchen, as it is my temporary working station!

So stay tuned for more news about it in the future!

And most of all, let’s keep the fingers crossed I’ll be able to update this space more regularly. Now that it seems I found my steady routine I should manage!

But I won’t get anxious this time, I promise…fall seven times and get up eight!

Always!