“Keep your knees bent”

Ugh. I have a true love/hate relationship with this phrase. You see, “keep your knees bent” was the go-to phrase that a couple of my past managers in Pharma loved to say. It was always some common sports analogy used to “motivate” us as reps. “Go for the Heisman!” or “C’mon team, we gotta keep our knees bent and head in the game” or my other favorite, “There is no I in team”. It used to nauseate me, as I respect the need for motivation and team mentality, but in reality we were in sales, we were competing with each other for outdoing each others goals, sooooo yeah, it never rung true to me in those days.

Well, well, well. Guess what my favorite saying is these days? (I say this on the reg, without throwing up in my mouth, even a little). “Keep your knees bent”. It would be foolish not to, with the state of the world. The information that we are presented with is overwhelming and changes by the hour. It is so much to process, and has caused SO MUCH DISRUPTION. Sometimes I wish that I could pinch myself to wake up from this crazed dream that we actually call reality. It is mind blowing not only to be forced to participate in, but the observations are numbing for me.

The reason I chose to “blog it out” today, was I received a text from one of the female friends whom I consider a “soul sister”. We have synergistic energies and thrive together. I adore her on every level. She spoke of how she was traveling home today, so as to help console her daughter who is a senior at a local college. She mentioned how her daughter was struggling with feeling robbed of what should be the best time of her life, her senior year in college. Realizing that since the remainder of her last semester will be online and she probably will not see her friends again, at least for a while and in a collegiate atmosphere. I get it. I LOVED my college years. The friendships, the shenanigans, the independence, the false reality of whats to come, I LOVED IT. Graduation is the apex of the time served and realizing that you are not going to ring the bell at the peak of said apex, it’s just crappy.

It’s funny, a couple days ago, my better half’s daughter, found herself to be in the same predicament. First was the blow that she would be finishing her last semester of college online, and probably will not have a normal graduation ceremony. Second, she was supposed to be leaving for Florida with her girlfriends for her last spring break hurrah. Unfortunately the cards were not stacked in her favor and she was processing some serious disappointments.

Welcome to keeping your knees bent, good old change agility, aka coping skills. She sought my opinions and struggled though, needing to stay in her mourning of the undesired change. I explained that I think that is important that she process the feelings of disappointment, as she has every right to feel “gipped”. It stinks for her and her buddies. It stinks for my girlfriend’s daughter and her friends. I also encouraged her to change her perspective on her present situation. Indeed, the rug is being pulled out from underneath her with the present normal she is living. It was my hope for her to not feel dismissed in her feelings, but to recognize that this is only the present. I promised her that when she moves into the next stage of her “normal” (future) she would never look back and be bummed that she didn’t have a graduation or go on senior year spring break. I reminded her that she was a part of making history. The results of this Pandemic don’t happen every day and that when she looks back, she most likely will be more prone to speak of how she was part of the seniors that were displaced, and that would be the talking point. Change your perspective, change your attitude.

I shared my feedback with my girlfriend as food for thought. I can only offer my perspective from being able to look back and giggle at myself from the majority of things that used to crush me, I was a total DQ. That said, everything that occurs in life is relative to the time period of your life. Priorities shift, things that were once valued, are no longer. It’s called change, it’s never going to stop, and frankly I would never wish it any other way.

Soooooooo, keep your knees bent, people, and bring on the sports analogies as my head is totally “in the game”.

“Maintain your forward momentum by cultivating flexibility” -Averstu.com

so much love and respect. xo

-e