525,600 minutes – how to you measure a year in life?

In a year from now we will look back at 2020 and think to ourselves what the heck was that and how did we get through it. I know we are far from getting through 2020 but I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the last twelve months of my life.

Twelve months ago I was just moving through life. The year started off with making a difficult decision to leave the job at WE. I thought when I landed at WE I really thought it was going to be THE job. For a while it was. Heath passed away and that changed me. During those final months at WE I had a workplace situation with a staff person. It was harassment and I chose to remove myself from that situation.

I took a job that I haven’t really talked much about. Mainly because it didn’t last long enough to make a dent. That job was misrepresented to me in the interview and hiring process and from the first week I worked there I knew that this wasn’t the job they had told me it was going to be.

That would bring me to April 2019. The search for “what next” had begun. I knew one thing for sure, I didn’t want to get back to selling leisure travel again. I wanted leadership development, training and business development. Application after application, months and months. Some interviews and some more that looked really promising. Then crickets.

In June I had a new opportunity propose itself with Goway Travel. I had my eye on the company for several years and it appeared that something would actually happen. I waited until August and then it happened. “We would like to welcome you to are induction class starting September 3rd.”

So after almost five months I was to embark on a new adventure, a European Destination Specialist with Goway Travel. I arrived the building across the street from my old Sell Off Vacations office and met the new team of trainees. Took the empty seat in the front (yes, the front) and met a wonderful ‘newbie’ who would fast become a great friend.

We were a group of five in the office and a few that were online with us from out west. The five of us spent four weeks together. The training room is in the basement, so we were called the basement dwellers. Coming out for lunch breaks to walk or while the weather was nice sit up on the roof top patio which is a bonus I can say I am longing for now after the winter season.

We went up to the reservations floor in early October. We were each provided a coach to teach us the “Goway Ways”. Even after 30 years of being in the industry, this was such a new and exciting arm of the industry that I needed to learn.

I am grateful for my past experience and quick ability to learn and adjust to new processes. I was keen to jump in and start. Patience grasshopper, patience.

Goway is a family run business that is celebrating it 50th anniversary this year. I can tell you that 2020 was ramping up to be a very special time for the company. The company is divided by area of the world with experts who really have unique expertise. So many different cultures in one place. The owners are Australian so there are a lot of Aussies in the company, but really from everywhere in the world, Italy, Germany, New Zealand, Ecuador, France and so many more. We are really a family from the United Nations.

Winter in the Europe department is the time for bookings. January was a blur. Work, home, sleep, repeat. Much like my past experiences but they were not for last minute vacations to the sun, they were for advance bookings to amazing European destinations, Italy being the top selling destination.

The company saw our Asia Expert family fall to victim to Covid 19 in December and when we were ramping up, they were faced with the full stop of travel to China. From the other side of the call centre we could feel pain, but we were too busy making bookings to full understand the enormity of the situation. We did take time out on Fridays at 4pm for wine time (on our first Friday we were on the floor we were told, grab a glass).

Until we started to hear that the small towns in Northern Italy were falling sick to the same virus. Then Milan closed and the flights started to stop flying to the north. We continue to book our European holidays because, who knew? People were starting to ask us about their summer travel, but this was February. We had no idea of what was to come.

From what we are all experiencing here in North America, the rapid chain of events cannot even be described. Every morning and every day at the office there were updates, and changes, and anxiety.

I feel that when someone says “I can only imagine what you are going through”, no you really can’t. That would apply to any industry. Just like I can’t even imagine what the front line medical workers are going through, you just can’t.

From a customer’s point of view, I had to cancel 50th birthday trips, 25th wedding anniversary trips and even my own bucket list trip to London. My training manager put it best the other night, it is okay to mourn the loss of all your months of hard work.

And of course, after watching every single part of the travel industry shut down from cruises, to airlines, to Disney, and everything in between come to a grinding halt full stop. This week was incredible rough for the local community. Many travel agencies have had to temporarily close their doors, suspend operations for the time being.

My Goway family joined that team this week. Many of my family members, including myself now find ourselves listening to the PM’s daily reports knowing it applies to us now.

I am sad. I am sad because after a very rough time the past 18 months I had a great family again. A place that I enjoyed going every day, with people I enjoyed spending time with. My fellow ‘basement dweller’ was part of the first round of family leaving. We ate lunch in the lunchroom together every day since September. I couldn’t even go to eat lunch down there after he left.

What will life look like when we emerge from this period of self isolation, no one knows. I hope that I will be able to return back to my Goway family and begin to create new European dream trips for those who had to put their dreams on hold for this virus.

I know that it will be hard to look for the rainbow because we are not through the storm yet.

Until then I will respect the distance, share my food photos and share my stories.

Stay safe and healthy, and please stay connecting but socially distanced.

Lisa