By Frances Agbaosi
Owner of Dot And Cross Collaborative
I sat down to write an article about what travel is going to be like in a post-Pandemic world. I have researched some amazing places that you will definitely want to add to your list, and even sourced some beautiful pictures to inspire you even more. Speaking of, be sure to stay close to HHM to see those articles in the future! Anyway, I spent a good amount of time thinking of the message I wanted to share about how changed traveling will be, and what would be the catchiest format to highlight all this.
Well, just like many of our New Year’s resolutions filled with new beginnings and purpose, this article has not turned out as expected. As I sit here with the intention of thinking about the future. My mind wanders to days in my past. Days that looked nothing like the reality I'm writing this article in. In fact, up until this year, I was climbing the corporate ladder (and it actually was the least corporate version of corporate I could find. I am not sure if that tells you something?).
Want to know why? Me too...and I have no idea – it’s just what you’re supposed to do, right? Did it make me happy? Not really. Did I earn a ton of money though? Nope. Surely then I must've got respect from my own managers and team, as well as clients for all my hard work? Not at all.
Between 2007 and 2020 I was industriously contributing to the Travel Industry. Before that, I was a flight attendant and before that, I was a student at University. When I was younger I had no idea what I wanted to do when I ‘grew up’ and to be honest, the idea of lawyer, nurse, teacher was so "not me" that I feel annoyed as I write this that someone actually suggested I do any of them.
Of course, I had to go to University. Anyone who wanted to be successful attends University. Not a problem. I actually liked school and I was good at it.
There was a brief time when I diverted from the higher education ‘plan’ and actually applied to be a flight attendant with Virgin instead of college but my Dad was so against this idea that I just sucked it up and did what he thought was best. I still had no idea what I wanted to do with this magical degree I was going to get. By the way, I ended up taking English which led to a lot of people suggesting (again) that I should look into being a teacher. Even though I love reading and learning, I honestly struggled through the 4 years to get to the end. I realise now that I was so uninspired, but I did graduate with a good grade.
Following on from this, I moved to London, became a flight attendant with BA, met my now-husband, and then continued my climb of the corporate ladder and the rest, as they say, is history.
Except that it is not. Well maybe it is, but it's not my future. I am a week off turning 40 and I have spent the past 20 years working towards something which I never really wanted, nor even particularly enjoyed. Because my father thought it was best. Because I didn't know what I really wanted to do so I settled for something that was "safe". I have spent much of that time knowing that this was not what I wanted but didn’t really know where to look to begin to find another option.
This year has changed all that and with the help of enforced time off and actual soul searching, I am finally on a path that feels better. I don’t even quite know what it is yet, to be honest, and I have a lot of my own work to do to get wherever it is I am headed. I do feel a hell of a lot more in control and fulfilled than I ever have though, even without knowing where this is all leading. I am just learning to feel what is good or not.
All this to say that you ladies, girl bosses, side hustlers, corporate climbers, entrepreneurs, mothers, and women with purpose across the world if there is something in you that feels there is something else you should be doing, lean into it. My Mum always told me I could be anything I wanted to be and she was absolutely right. Be brave enough to create your journey as you go. Dream up a service, product, brand, and or solution and believe that there is a market for it. Because there is.
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