Diary of a Young Professional During the Pandemic

The joys of working for an International conflict management organization is that during times of crisis, we have to be on our toes to ensure we don't miss anything. We need to be able to research, advise, discuss, and attempt to mitigate conflict.

This translates into endless hours of meetings, stepping on each other's toes, late nights, early mornings, no weekends, and yes no public holidays. Sleep patterns, what's is that again?
🤔
With emails, watsapp meetings , zoom calls, Ms Team meetings etc, From two weeks before SA's lockdown, to say my life has been a roller-coaster is an understatement 😳🙄.

Somedays have been flippen difficult and some easier. But through it all have to say thank you to my support system. From the how are you? I mean how are you? To the video calls, long phone calls, to the I have mad love for you ntwana, to the don't cry mam'khulu, to the things will get better, to that how are you feeling today...

Dammmmm. Anyways, as they say this too shall pass. Well my lunch break is over, let me get back to work ✌️✌️. Miss King Signing out 😜

She Leads

Today I honestly don't have much to say yazi.

But as we come to the end of Day 40 of the South Africa's lockdown, I found this post and I thought I should share. 

It's a Freedom day. Celebrating our "Freedom"

Today I have very few words to explain what I feel, how I feel, and even how to feel. 

But the most important thing to be said today, is happy freedom day ("power or right to act, speak or think as one wants" South Africa, and this too shall pass (#COVID-19) . 

As we celebrate this day, please think about and reflect on this video. 

Miss King Signing out. 

PS. Will probably write a longer piece later.

Lockdown stuff and shenanigans and etc etc

Day what what.... Of what ever

Ya neh, it was one of those rough days. From not being able to sleep to finally falling asleep after 2am (hey I sleep early alright). Then was restless, and dreamt a little, but those dreams were scary and gloomy.

Like..... What a wow.

When I eventually fell asleep, the sun woke me up. Like even mother nature was against me right😑😒. Focusing on anything was a challenge, soooo ya. I can declelare today a mess 🤔🤔🤔. So ya....

Oh wait! I forgot to mention that the mosquitoes had a full buffet last night, I have over 10 bites 😢.

Anyways, some days will always be better than others, and that is cool. And honestly, sometimes one needs to just take themselves less seriously. Like come on Susan, its really not that bad G 😏😉😉.

But this COVID-19 situation is really... Doing the ish, I must say.

As this day winds down, let's see what tomorrow has in store, cheers and when in doubt remember these words: do you boo.

I miss my freedom of movement yazi 🤔🤔.
I think I will talk about that tomorrow, ummm, maybe, ohhh, ya, we shall see.

Lights out and stay strong ✌️.

Reflections at the end of day LDD 25.

Saying 2020 had been a rough year, would be an understatement. 

No one had a real or true comprehension of what a lockdown of a whole country would look like, or what it intailed. Looking back at the last couple of weeks, I get a sense of doom as I reflect on what is to come. Will I recover? will we recover? and when? and how? 

While the sense of doom lingers, one can't help but to reflect on how much complaining has become part of our very day lives. Even worse, we complain about things beyond our control. I reflect on how I  stopped counting my blessings and instead I was counting the negatives. 

As day 25 comes to an end, I have been reflecting on plan- B's (will share in further later), and the lessons that I have learnt since the beginning of the year, the pandemic, and Post global crisis. ↴

I also came across this opinion piece writen by Rapelang Rabana for Daily Maverick, which got me thinking and reflecting more on the Current Crisis. I thought I should share... 

Hope the words resonate with you too. 

" The biggest block to creativity and innovation results from people’s broad acceptance of the status quo, and I would even say, the emotional commitment to the “way things are”. A blind adherence to “this is how the world works”, like it’s the truth. 

Most of us don’t realise that we spend our entire lives living in our own self-created box, a bell jar that determines so much of our behaviour, how our brain is wired, and how we end up seeing the world – so much so that we are not aware that we only seeing ONE view of the world. 

Corona forces us to see that the status quo can change, very dramatically and very quickly. That the things we held to be constant, are not so permanent."

Black Excellence : Miss King

So lets kick of the series by a feature on the one and only your girl Miss King👑😍😉😉.

Sibusisiwe Nomthandazo Nkosi, aka Miss King (MaNkosi), is a selective intravert, with a big heart and a contagious smile. True story, my smile and laugh are contagious 😁.

From day one my family spoke greatness into my life. My Grandfather named me Sibusisiwe (We are blessed), as a first born in my generation I was a blessing which was received with open arms. My parents named me Nomthandazo (mother of prayer), after winning a battle on my behalf through prayer before I was born.

She is a young woman who is still discovering new things about herself EVERYDAY, and is being molded into God's perfection. There are days when I am like G, this is taking forever now, ngiready mina 🙄☺️. Then God says, "im not done my child" 😏.

Enough about me, let me jump straight into it, 🖤 Excellence.

I celebrate all forms of excellence, even the ones which don't seem worth celebrating becoz we have been conditioned to only look at material things. For me it is in the way young black women and gents are doing the most, they are jet setting, they are following their dreams, and they are striving to be the best them in all that they do.

For me its about us creating spaces for us to discuss issues, using various platforms to raise issues, and even having the ability and strength to say I don't have my s..t together, or just saying i am struggling...

Its a movement, and its a personal journey. There is no cookie cutter definition. It's an evolution, my definition for 2019, is its when God has placed you in a space and you can look back and say i played my part with all the resources God gave me to make a change....

Black Excellence in the South African context has a young black face and this excites me so much.

I am surrounded by a number of ladies and even gents who embody black excellence. This is what makes this series so exciting for me.

#isnoteasybutworthit #itsamovement #blackexcellence #missking #sibunko #chroniclesofazuluqueen

The Young Black Excellence Series

Wow, it has been a minutes since I last used this platform.

For some reason, I found myself back here today. Guess the timing was just perfect right 😉.

  

As a way of getting back into the groove, I have decided to use this platform to celebrate the month of August by celebrating some young black women in my circle, who inspire me and who embody black excellence for me.

This month's blogs will used to have discussions on what black excellence means for us in our South African context as well as seeing practical examples of were young black women have displayed this.

I am super excited to take everyone along with me on this journey and I hope this series will inspire some of you to continue doing what you do well and with even more excellence.

So watch this space for the exciting series and the amazing stories!!

#Celebratingyoungwomen #Blackexcellence #TheyoungBlackexcellenceseries #Iamblackexcellence

Signing out for now your Zulu Queen, Miss King.