Fist bumps and boardroom etiquette - Part 2

It was late morning on March 20th 2020, day 4 of the first national lockdown and I was writing the final few lines of my blog ‘Fist bumps and boardroom etiquette’. Even as I watched my diary of work evaporate, and looked out the window to the ghostly empty streets, and watched the national television broadcast of a stern-faced Boris Johnson telling us ‘lives will be lost, this is very serious and we should all stay at home’ ; for me like many people, this was my first personal experience of a global pandemic and I really had no idea of the true impact it would have, and how life as we know it would be turned on its head for the rest of 2020.

Nine months on and the last line of that blog feels more poignant than ever.

‘So whether we go for the elbow tap, fist bump or whatever greeting you prefer when we next meet, we humans are social beings, and we will find a way to adapt to this new world we find ourselves in.’

While we did find a way to adapt, who could have imagined a world with grounded planes and empty skies; theatre music venues, pubs and restaurants closed; home life, merging with work life, merging with nursery and home schooling, with families having to learn to fit all of these things into those four walls; where zoom calls and social-distancing would become a part of normal everyday life. And of course who could have imagined a world where you couldn’t see your elderly loved ones and those most precious to you, but through a window or a plastic screen.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel with vaccines being rolled out across the world. While the start of this new year is clearly going to be a bumpy ride, we will soon be able to be those social beings that we were, once again, and take the lessons we have learnt and those positives from 2020 and make 2021 a special year like no other.

So bring it on! Together we can do this!

Here’s to 2021!

Images Copyright of London Photographer Nathan Clarke | For any image use enquiries contact me at nathan@nathanclarkephotography.co.uk