I have not been sleeping well because I have been too excited about things, ideas, and projects. I stay up till 3am writing ideas, running code, and editing pictures. – I do not remember a time I felt so excited as I am right now. It is weird, but covid-19 has helped me to stop and ask myself the right questions.
A few weeks ago, I took 3 days off from social media/ internet to reconnect with myself. I was confused. The virus put me in a position that I did not know how to handle anymore – I was in the final round with two companies to get a job. A few days later, both contacted me saying they had frozen the recruitment process due to the virus. I was disappointed and almost hopeless.
During the time I was off from social, many ideas and thoughts came to my mind. The one that consistently appeared was: “How can I embrace my passions more?”
Since I moved to Chicago to join the University of Chicago, many doubts about myself and capacities arose. I struggled to find my space here and connect my current life with everything I did before (I talked about this HERE). I could not see the connection between being a communicator, a traveler, a runner, a women activist, a marketer but also a CODER, ANALYST, or even a DATA SCIENTIST. I used to say nothing makes sense in my life. I am everything and nothing. [This may sound super silly, but I struggled so much with this subject… For me, the hardest part since I joined university was looking around and not seeing anyone like me who has the same wishes/ hobbies/ aspirations].
During those 3 days off, I constantly ask myself: “How can I bring these worlds together?”, “How can I continue to be who I am and shifting my profession a bit?”, “How can I bring joy and enthusiasm to things I do, as before?”
That was when the idea of bringing my connections to talk about productivity came to my mind [see more HERE]. All sudden I understood that was the way to go – joining my communication skills and passion to share with my new data science network. You have no idea how much this little idea and online event helped to put in perspective my current aspirations and goals. The feedback [thank you for all the positive messages you sent across about this event and especially the joy I had doing it] allowed me to engage and create much more and better content than before. More than anything, it allowed me to see I could create and inspire not only travel friends but also data scientists.
3 days of stillness unlocked so many of my doubts and fears! So often we seek for approval from others that we almost forget things can be so easy if we embrace who we really are! – I hope you all take a moment to re-center during this quarantine because I can guarantee you, those 3 days off completely changed me!
About the productivity series: I brought the best profile from around the world: Portugal, France, Argentina, US (I hope next time I can represent Asia and Africa). Experts in Communication but also in Data Science. Women that inspire me to BE More and Do more. – You can find all the interviews on my YouTube channel.
I hope you enjoyed this post.
Daniela
Photo by Clément M & Alex Alvarez & Michael Rechenberg on Unsplash