I’m probably not the only person who thinks the world will never be the same.

Sometimes it takes a crisis to change the way people do things, to force them out of their comfort zone and into a new normal and I do believe we’re in that type of period of history.

With the pandemic and social distancing norms, a lot of my presentations, no actually all my current presentations have become online.

I feel mixed about this.

In one way it’s great! No commute! I live in Toronto, famous for traffic gridlock and I’d literally get anxiety wondering what time I had to leave in the morning to get to my presentations on time!

Now the commute is down to my ‘studio’ in my basement, at my desktop.

And now I suffer a different anxiety. Will I ‘connect’ with my audience properly? Will I be energetic enough to keep their attention? Will the security system voice interrupt the presentation with its haphazard declaration of “System boot completed!” Oh it’s happened!!! And it’s mortifying!

I think my deepest fear is thinking that the organizers who invited me and are paying me good money will say to each other afterwards, “Well that so wasn’t worth it!”

But at the same time, I can’t help thinking of all the untold opportunities available!

When I was touring Alaska, presenting to students in Barrow, there were some remote communities accessing the presentation through technology. It wasn’t as sophisticated as it’s now become but they were seeing me, and hearing me, and they had excellent questions.

Alaska and many parts of northern Canada have such tiny remote villages that it doesn’t make sense to fly in. So as a result they often miss out on opportunities for enrichment. But really, now, with the availability of pretty good quality online presentations, there’s no reason why we can’t go live!!!

The possibilities are endless.

And yet I’m at the age where figuring out new technology is definitely a steep learning curve.

I’m going to give myself the same advice I gave my soon to be fourteen year old granddaughter when I was tutoring her in algebra.

When it comes to learning new stuff, first and foremost, relax. People tend to tighten up when confronted with the unknown. Don’t! Just relax and let the new information wash over you, like a wave, at first.

Then slowly, with a positive attitude, familiarize yourself with the new terminology and what the technology is asking you to do.

It will come, insha Allah. Just don’t panic.