What A Year It's Been...
We've officially hit the month of December, and can you believe it? It seems like just yesterday I was walking through the halls of CES in January, thinking to myself about all the things I wanted to accomplish for the year. I started the year off with huge goals and a vision for growing this platform into something great. After an incredible CES event where I got the chance to work with some major tech brands and highlight discussions on diversity and inclusion, I began reaching out to contacts for the opportunity to engage in STEM outreach.
I knew I had useful information to provide, a much needed platform, and the energy to be able to excite youth and beyond into the STEM fields. I've always been comfortable being on stage, so my focus was to dive into keynote presentation opportunities - spreading the love for STEM all across America. Sounds like a lofty goal, but I always believe anything is attainable. After numerous cold calls, online research, and strategizing...I finally booked my first speaking session for a local STEM festival. Then I booked another one at the national convention for NSBE, followed by another one....and another one (DJ Khaled voice). Everything seemed to be coming together as planned.....then March hit.
March of course, brought in COVID-19 and as we all know, the rest was history. Literally. Everything I had worked for, swiped off the table. No in person gigs, no school workshops, no vlogs at science events....nothing. At this moment, I knew I had to sink or swim, but the realization was not swift. I spent about a week feeling down on my luck, wondering how and why everything I was doing seemed to always do a 180 flip on me. My disappointment turned into encouragement, then into motivation, as I began realizing this was a global issue we were all dealing with. Everyone was faced with the same adversity, and like any other situation, I had to find the means to pull myself up.
Luckily, my past year's worth of work collecting digital content, shooting vlogs, capturing interviews, and filming sketches all proved to have the ultimate payoff. I had the tools and the skill set needed to take advantage of this new virtual age we were in. My vlogs that seemed to get no traction before, turned into educational tools that teachers and students needed. My sketches & digital content became comedic releases for those now on their phones looking for a break away from the monotony. Eventually, my couple hundred Instagram followers turned into a couple thousand, and the speaking gigs that I had worked so hard to book all came back in the form of virtual events.
Looking back now with December here, it's incredible to see the ups and downs that this year has put us through. As I always do with the year coming to an end, I try to visualize what worked well and what didn't, and make the necessary steps to prepare myself for what's next. All this to say....I can't believe it's already December....