Adapting To Change – A Different Summer

Not everything is rainbows. I am quite a positive person; people know me for singing out loud, telling jokes and laughing as loud as I can. Two months have passed since I’ve been quarantined, and there were days in which the sun didn’t seem so bright and days in which life didn’t seem to smile back at me. There were  days in which my plans changed drastically in matter of minutes, days in which things that I had planned for months changed with one single call. This is why today I’m writing about adapting and adjusting in the middle of uncertainty.

Adapting is in our nature. It’s biology. It’s well known that whoever adapts better is more likely to survive. But what does adaptability mean? In my experience it’s about letting go and understanding what really matters. In a few weeks we’ve seen how many things have changed: How we consume, how we communicate, how we work, how we share time with loved ones, etc. And re- learning all these activities that were so natural in us has been hard. From what I learned it is very important to acknowledge that there is a new normal, breathe, let go and see the beauty in the new ways we interact with the world.

Not only habits changed. Our expectations for example, are surely in need of adaptation. My favorite season of the year in Guatemala is summer. I love the heat, the beach getaways, and summer nights in which you can still feel the heat of the day amidst the darkness. This year, I have spent my favorite two months of the entire year inside my house. Very different from the way I have spent these two months in every other year! But I can assure you that I will never forget this summer. I spent more time in the kitchen; I got a new puppy to play with; I spent tons of time talking with my mom and watching Netflix together. And there was beauty, plenty of beauty.

There’s a quote in one of my favorite songs that says “Perfection is beauty’s enemy” This has been an imperfect year, but it doesn’t mean it hasn’t been beautiful. We became more in contact with what’s important, what transcends. We are seeing life from a different point of view. We finally understood that we can find peace in living day by day. Life is not about activities, but about moments.

What is the purpose of this blog? Perhaps to remind ourselves of the importance of inspiration, perhaps to remember ourselves that this too shall pass. Perhaps a little bit of self- therapy. My advice? Rely on your favorite songs, poems and stories. (We have some downloadable stories for you :). Remember that adaptation is easier when you have a tribe, a community. Get connected.

In Wakami we’ve been having to adapt too. As you might know, we have a yearly calendar with communication and ideas we like to share. What happened? We had to react quickly and change them. We normally have months to prepare our campaigns, this time we had hours to re-design. What we did instead? We tried to listen, to really understand the situation. We read, we talked with citizens of the world and guess what? We adapted. We went back to the basics, to our essence and tried to connect with you from what we believe and from what connects us.

One of the ways we adapted was to switch our sewing center to making masks, as we shared in a prior post. This has been quite a ride, but also a reminder that our brand is a bridge and a space to connect in deeper ways.

Thank you for being part of our tribe, for adapting with us and for being in this journey.