I started 2020 as many people did making perennial goals to strive toward. Then there was COVID. With it feeling as if the earth had fallen off its axis, we were thrown into a spiralizing chaos and while it started with the pandemic, it seemed that all things had come to a head. Working in higher education, I have observed in the last few months institutions in reaction mode to the rapid change and uncertainty that has enveloped the world. It was no longer that institutions, systems and infrastructures could change, but rather that they now have to change in order to not just merely survive but to thrive. A colleague said to me “Within crisis, there is opportunity.” Institutions have recognized at the center of the vortex of this storm, there is the opportunity to reassess and renew institutional missions, visions and strategies necessary to move into an uncertain future. While this is happening at our respective institutions and organizations, this is also an opportunity to reassess and renew our own personal and professional missions, visions and strategies. This has become an opportunity to explore our lives before COVID and to reimagine our lives for the future to come. For many, personal and professional priorities have shifted in the wake of the pandemic. I know they have for me. So how can we as individuals emerge into this new world, this uncertain future with renewed purpose and vision? I have used this time to reassess my personal and professional goals, to silence the voices and expectations of others and to discern my own voice and vision. Parker Palmer in his profound book Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation said “Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent.” And so, I have used this opportunity found in crisis to reassess and renew my values, to realign personal and professional goals with my values and to identify and initiate actions in alignment with those values and goals. While some may view this process of personal and professional life planning indulgent, others may view it as an absolute necessity in order to pivot, to not just survive but thrive in this rapidly changing world. If anything, this crisis has reminded us of the value of life and how finite it is. As poet Mary Oliver, asks in her poem The Summer Day, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Kenya Nyota Lee is an administrator at Baruch College, CUNY; NYC Regional Coordinator of the NY ACE Women’s Network; and a doctoral student at Northeastern University.