You can still make new friends when wearing a mask. Your eyes carry your smile.
— Leslie Yerkes
On my recent first plane trip since the onset of the pandemic and my first trip out of the country in over two years, I found the world waiting and people willing to connect.
I have always been able to start a conversation with anyone. My mother complained when I was young that I “Could talk the wallpaper off the walls.” Her hope was that I could parlay this skill into a paying profession.
This chattiness reflects my Myers-Briggs Type personality style of Extroversion. I generate energy by interaction. I am also very curious and interested in learning about other people, cultures, and lifestyles.
Travel presents the perfect opportunity to be an observer and learner. And this trip was no different…and yet it was.
I was traveling under new conditions, greeting people with my eyes and masked smile. I hope to convey my positive nature while being aware of my surroundings.
When I stay open to the opportunity, I usually make a new friend on some leg of my journey. This trip literally showered me with connections and reconnects.
I am aware that the pandemic has brought on trauma in people’s lives. We don’t know the hardships of another person or the rocks of life they are carrying when we meet. I strive to make every interaction positive and easy. If I can make another person smile or laugh it makes my day as well.
I feel a little like a caged animal having just been released into the world. Have you ever seen the YouTube videos of cows discovering a grassy field for the first time? They jump, spin and romp with glee. I, too, was a dancing cow this week when traveling through airports, on planes, in lines, vans, elevators and the hotel environment.
The first friend I made was in the Cleveland Airport security line. I shared my stale joke about getting dressed in the morning to leave the house and then undressed at the airport to pass through security. It bridged the moment with the man in front of me and we walked and talked the length of the concourse. Friend #1 and shared coffee and conversation and found a mutual work interest which we will connect to explore when he returns from Egypt.
On the second flight, I was seated next to a bright IT engineer for LinkedIn who was the best example of a woman millennial who was both technically and interpersonally skilled. Time passed quickly as we talked from Houston to Cancun. We exchanged contact information and parted ways to start our vacations.
My short visit to Cancun was filled with friendly greetings, smiles, and encouragement for my efforts to converse in Spanish.
I visited the store of a jewelry maker who remembered me and the special piece I had purchased two years previously. My belief in the goodness of people was really on display during this out-of-zoom, bubble experience.
This morning I rose early to make the trip home. I loved the break in my routine but didn’t really break away from work. While I missed my four-footed family, I found myself prepared to navigate the last weeks of winter with Mexican sunshine in my heart.
But the universe wasn’t done with me. I had more friends to make. There was the couple from Kansas in the van to the airport with whom we shared silly timeshare sales pitch stories.
And the cherry on the sundae of my adventure was Monte. He was sitting across the aisle on the way home, watching me read and then write in the book I held in my hands. Monte asked, “Are you an author?” His aunt who writes textbooks makes notes like I do in books.
This, of course, was the invitation for me to share many enthusiastically-told stories. Monte volunteered that he had just quit his job in manufacturing after 23 years. He and his wife were taking a vacation before he jumped back into the workforce.
Monte is the poster person for what we are experiencing in the pandemic workforce. For years He worked, compliantly, for a heavy-handed boss in an admittedly ‘toxic’ work environment. Proud of his skills and contribution, but overworked and underappreciated. When a heart issue interrupted this cycle, Monte realized that he could choose life balance and happiness over a paycheck. He was flying home to Cleveland today to start a new chapter in his work life.
He confessed to not knowing what he wanted to do next. So, what do you think I did? I gave Monte the book I was reading, “The EOS Life,” and we exchanged our information. I have just found the next best-entrepreneur or -employee to introduce into my network. He is not hardened or cynical from his past employment experience but big-hearted and eager to find the right place to land.
I return from my quick respite re-energized and recommitted to my work with people. Good people are everywhere looking to find other good people with whom to connect. My new friends were a reflection of the workforce world I support:
- A retired physician volunteering his time and starting a new venture
- A millennial woman ‘leaning in’ to support her team and showing up confidently every day
- A gentle man — with the encouragement of his wife — choosing life balance over uninspired working conditions. Monte wants to work — but he wants to do meaningful work with people who are respectful of each other.
As we landed in Cleveland, we recommitted to staying connected. Monte shyly asked me, “Leslie, are there really companies like the ones described in this book?” I smile back and said, “Yes, Monte. And I will happily introduce you to many of them.”
I think that I have found a renewed purpose — I return from my brief trip seeing the need to help individuals find their right work and the right workplace whose culture values people as much as they focus on production.
Could it be that we are ‘pulling together while the world ‘pulls apart and frays’?
What is the purpose that gets you out of bed eager to start the day?
Leslie
“I now have two-sided conversations with people in supermarkets different from before COVID.
Before, they were polite and wanted me to stop.
Now, they turn and give back
information, smiles, and engagement.
This is the part of
‘The good that comes from the bad’
that makes carrying on worth the effort.”
— Randy Martin
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