Hello everyone, my name is XinYao. I’m glad to be here today, and see you guys around…virtually. This is funny, it reminds me of an old technique to cope with public speaking nervousness – that is to imagine your audience as if they are not there. Apparently I don’t need to do that today, actually,I have to imagine you are there, smiling, nodding, interacting with me to keep myself going.
My mom called me a couple weeks ago to check out if everything was ok as we had been working from home for a long time, she knows how much I love outdoor activities. Let’s put it this way, even if I decide I’m going to stay at home to do something for a whole weekend, I guarantee you would see me at least going out for a run or a coffee on Saturday and Sunday.
But now, I literally haven’t stepped out from my little house for two weeks, if not three weeks. And, for the reason everyone knows, this has been the pattern for me or for many people for the past half a year or so. She thought I would be depressed and was ready for me to moan about it, but actually I said ‘everything is fine mom, I’m having fun, we had a virtual team drink & quiz night yesterday with colleagues, I am about to finish the book that I wanted to read a long time ago and there’s a very interesting presentation about bamboo ceiling that I plan to watch tomorrow…; oh oh we even played escape room organized by UKCWC a couple weeks ago’. ‘Oh nice’ she sounds surprised, and, in fact, I was surprised myself realizing how many things I have been doing while being restricted to stay at home. I didn’t feel lonely, and quiet on the opposite, I felt as if my social circle or social experience actually got expanded during this lockdown period.
Like today, although I have to imagine your faces, you are there. We will get to know each other as this hear her voice programme continues, we may even become friends offline one day.
Of course, I miss my family in China and haven’t had any chance to meet my old friends for a long time. I want my normal life back, I wish COVID19 can be over soon, I hope everyone gets back to their normal life as soon as possible and be healthy. But now, staying at home is probably the most responsible thing to do, without social activities in real life, Online communities really help with mental health. So, find a group with common interests, share thoughts, feelings and interesting things, at least you won’t feel lonely in this way. With mutual support, we will get through together, and you may surprise yourself by learning something unexpectedly new.
Talking about online communities and surprises, I have to say UKCWC is one of the biggest surprises for me in the past few months, a nice one though. If you happen to know me in person, or say in real life. Then you must be very surprised to see me joining this group.
Let me tell you a bit about myself, I’m the only girl in my team and the only Chinese in the firm. This is not unusual in my life, it has always been like this, I studied science in school, economics in University and then entered my career in this buy-side firm in the finance industry, either I was only one or I was one of the very few women or Chinese in the group.