A Pivot from Dreadfully Busy to Perpetually Curious
Photo Credit Sherri Holdridge Photography
Hi everyone — it’s been a while.
Everyone has their version of living through a pandemic and deep political/cultural fissures; I doubt many people have found it easy. I know I was less inclined to write funny, light-hearted posts. After work, family time and absorbing the news, sometimes there was only energy for takeout and escape TV. (Thank you, Ruan Thai and Ted Lasso.)
The years I took off from blogging were busy times: I took a job leading communications and marketing for a local economic development organization shortly before the pandemic hit. Our team worked to elevate Montgomery County’s thriving life sciences industry while also marketing pandemic assistance grants, with over $22 million awarded to local restaurants, small businesses and nonprofits. It was important, meaningful work; I’m especially grateful to the marketing team for all they taught me and their talent and creativity, which included a beautifully designed #MaskUpMoco flyer with the tagline “spread love not germs.”
And now, another pivot in 2022: I joined the great resignation and started Kristin O’Keefe Communications. I’m excited to help mission-driven nonprofits and businesses tell their stories, to work with visionary leaders who engage in the back-and-forth that’s so essential to producing the highest quality work. I’ve got clients, a revamped website (!) and now, last but not least, my first blog post in some time.
As with many a new endeavor, it’s both rejuvenating and a little nerve-wracking.
I’m fine with those feelings, grateful even. We all know change is hard; it can be especially challenging mid-career. Erik Erickson, known for his eight stages of psychosocial development, calls this period a time of either generativity or stagnation. A time where many of us — me included — have the potential to stagnate, dig into our way of doing things, even our grievances.
One essential quality that leads to generativity and growth is adopting a perpetually curious mindset. I saw the term in a wonderful book about the great Russian writers by author George Saunders. He wrote of Chekhov: "In a world full of people who seem to know everything, passionately, based on little (often slanted) information, where certainty is often mistaken for power, what a relief it is to be in the company of someone confident enough to stay unsure (that is, perpetually curious).”
I love this idea of staying open to the world, new experiences and perspectives, whether that’s through one’s book and listening choices, trying travel, food, art and music, and most definitely in conversation.
Conversations that Sparked my Curiosity
One of my favorite new consulting projects has been highlighting the work and reach of local nonprofit MCAEL for their 15 year anniversary. To showcase their coalition work with the adult English language learning community, we developed a campaign featuring stories from the community — our own version of the popular “Humans of New York” series.
For “People of MCAEL,” I got to interview learners, instructors and program staff, a perpetually curious, warm community with wonderful insights.
From Maimouna, we learn what you can hide on a Zoom call, why the term “heart of gold” made no sense until it did. Halima, who speaks four languages and is learning a fifth, explains why the concept of home transcends locality.
I admire the energy of Sylvia: by day she teaches high school English and directs school plays; at night she works with English language learners at the same place her mother studied years ago.
Some wisdom from Sylvia: ”I tell my English language students, and would tell everyone in the county, we are all human, no one is better than anyone else. We should encourage people to try new things, make mistakes and help them grow — we’re in this life together.”
Exactly. We’re all in this messy, human life together. We don’t have to be perpetually cheerful (who could be?) but we’re likely to do better if we’re open and listening. After all, that’s the space where the growth happens.
I plan to be back on this blog with more people and stories that strike my curiosity and keep me learning.
And speaking of curious, I’m looking for your favorite hiking recommendations. We found Annapolis Rocks the Maryland part of the Appalachian Trail this week; it was beautiful. I’ll take any and all ideas for a running list.
Finally, if you need the help of a curious communicator, please reach out — you can find more of my work on KristinOKeefe.com. Thank you!
Curiosity Sparkers
This podcast “What It means to be kind in a cruel world” brought me to George Saunder’s new book
The book on great Russian writers is A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
More on Annapolis Rocks hike on Maryland’s Appalachian Trail
This #MaskUpMoco campaign flyer was available in six languages on maskupmoco.com. It was created with input from public health officials, local chambers and marketers prior to vaccines when masks were required by local government and businesses needed help sharing that message.