How2: Our Look Back at 2020.

Chlo

LORD. What a year! Boy, I did not think that when the clock struck midnight that 2020 was going to be the year that it was. Luckily, I was able to get one holiday out of the year before the pandemic struck - Disneyland saw me for the second time in two years.

Two weeks later, March has arrived bringing us this thing called “Coronavirus/Covid-19” , boy oh boy. I was working in a primary school on my placement year at the time, we had no idea what was happening with the school, whether we were staying open, closing completely, staying open for key-worker children, it was all up in the air - everyday we saw less children coming in, our class of 30 went down to 12 within a week. Eventually, the schools closed and we were put on a rota that worked out in me only being in school once every two weeks.

Obviously, this meant that I was stuck at home with absolutely NOTHING to do - my parents were in zoom calls all day, my brother was doing online learning, so I literally had nobody to annoy. I was reading 3 books a week, I rewatched every show possible (I forgot how much I loved 90210 & One Tree Hill), I was even making 2000 piece Disney puzzles - I still have one more to do . The boredom was oh so real. That was when I decided that it was time to start How2 again; whilst Sof was working, I was annoying her all day with ideas for our brand.

I must say, How2 was one of, if not, the best things to come out of 2020. Lockdown 1.0 made me open my eyes up to so many things that I had been hiding from; How2 provided me with the boost that I needed to overcome so many hurdles. Shoutout to Sof for sticking with me through my crazy ideas.

Eventually the sun began to come out. Days spent inside in bed binging shows were now spent outside in the garden binging shows whilst catching a tan. I also found myself going on hour long walks, just to get out of the house and clear my head. At one point I was doing a 4 mile walk home after work, ask me to do that now and I’ll probably faint, but the sun had me going for it. By June, I was back at work with my class, Year 1 being the first ones to go back and I couldn’t tell you how happy I was to see some of the kids who I hadn’t seen in MONTHS - they had grown up so much, which made it so much harder for me to say bye at the end of term, they really made me not want to go back to uni for my final year.

From the last day of term, summer had officially started. That same night I met up with my girls, we had an early meal and ended up waved before 10pm (this was really the start of it all, wow we are a mess). That same weekend mine & Sof’s younger cousin had her 18th birthday and luckily we were able to celebrate it with the family and some of her friends, you already know that the wave was caught yet again. My summer was spent catching jokes with my girls, spending time with my family and living by myself for two weeks - I have never had as much fun as I did in the two weeks I was alone, it was the greatest. September eventually came around, my little cousins went off to uni and made everybody cry when saying bye, I was thrown into the world of online learning and zoom calls being back at uni for my final year, and then lockdown 2.0 struck right after my birthday. Luckily for me I was still able to go for some drinks with my friends, have a nice weekend away and cut a cake with my family.

The first weeks of December saw the ending of lockdown 2.0 which meant that I could go for my yearly Christmas strolls around Oxford Street. Honestly, I don’t even think I had been to west end more times than I have done in the month of December, I was there EVERY WEEK. With everything being closed, the only thing to do was go for walks and look at the Christmas lights. However, that all changed when Christmas was cancelled because of Boris’ tiers. I don’t know about anybody else, but being locked at home during the cold and rainy days took its toll - I have never been so miserable in my life. It was absolutely dreadful. I honestly don’t understand how people are doing assignments whilst locked up, I was STRUGGLING. The extensions were the only thing that saved my life, and even then, the motivation to write 3000 word assignments were non-existent.

However, despite December being another shit month, it ended on a better note than I expected. At the start of the pandemic my happiness was basically non-existent and finding myself was SO key. I can’t even lie and say that I don’t have the best support system, my family and friends really are the greatest. Trust me, they put up with a lot from me, Drama Queen! How2 definitely helped as well, it gave me something to do, instead of moping around feeling sorry for myself. As the year went on, the happiness levels went up. Positive affirmations were my thing of 2020 - positive thoughts, positive actions; speaking things into existence. I ended 2020 knowing who I am and what I want from this thing we call life. Obviously we have to take everyday as it comes, but I’m here for more growth and whatever blessings are coming my way. 2021 is definitely going to be our year - I can’t wait to see where How2 goes.

Sof

What a whirlwind year! The year started off great - I saw the new year in with my boyfriend watching Harry Potter and drinking wine, was just about to book my girls trip to Malaysia and thinking about all the other fun things that were going to happen in 2020. WRONG!

All of a sudden it’s March, my work are telling us we need to work from home, we all think we’ll be back in 2 weeks so we just take what we need for the short-term and go. All I’m thinking is yay I finally get the opportunity to work from home without needing to lie and say the boiler man is coming round. By the way, I’m still working from home. Then lockdown happened; we all had to stay at home. At first this was fun: baking, home workouts, Zoom quizzes, extensive Amazon orders - it was all a piece of cake. It also helped that the weather was getting better in London and I could spend some time in the garden. 2 week lockdown became 4, then 4 became 6 and before we knew it, it was May! By this point I hadn’t seen my boyfriend, my friends or my extended family in what felt like a lifetime and at times that was really hard. Thankfully I don’t live alone though, so I had my dad, brother and my bestfriend to keep me company!

Then sometime happened… I got a text message from Chloë basically saying she’s got some free time on her hands now that it’s lockdown (she was doing a placement in a school at the time) so she wants to kickstart our brand that we created when we were teenagers. As soon as those words left her mouth, we were both on job. She done the first website template and wrote a blog post, while I was doing the behind the scenes business admin. By the end of the week we had a website, Instagram page and a registered company. May 6th, How2Girls was born.

So it’s May and things are looking a bit better in the UK, sun is shining, cases are slowing down and there is light at the end of the tunnel - of course there’s light, I run a blog now and that’s the message I like to spread! On the downside, my flight to Malaysia just got cancelled so boo no girls trip for us. We had our first barbecue in May, when I’m telling you the whole of the UK was probably barbecuing this weekend because we needed some good vibes to be flowing!!! June came round pretty quickly and outdoor activities started to open again - yay. I celebrated my anniversary with my boyfriend at last and we had the best time drinking, eating and playing golf at N1 Golf in Greenwich. Summer was really starting to look up! BOOM JULY 4TH = FREEDOM!!!! We’re allowed back outside and who goes out on the first night? Lol me. Not because I was absolutely gagging to get out the house I swear - it was my friends birthday. Nonetheless, we were outtttt. Honey I even put on heels for the occasion because I don’t think I’d worn heels yet in 2020. Summer was all about being outside, park linkups became the new thing and the good weather actually blessed us. BBQs all over London once again - we even managed to have a block party for our cousins birthday which was so much fun. Everything wasn’t completely back to normal though. For the first time ever since it started, Notting Hill Carnival was cancelled. If you know about Carnival, you know it’s the day most of us Londoners enjoy most out of the whole year. It’s just always a vibe and a great time with your friends, which we sadly didn’t get to experience last year.

For a while it looked like things were getting better, I even managed to work in my office for 2 days with people in real life. Those days without Teams meetings were heaven! We managed to stick How2Girls stickers in so many different places across London too; we had plans to stick up so many more. The summer/autumn months were actually the best we had last year. Despite the constant smell of antibac in the air, London was popping. For all we knew, we’d be “back to normal” in a couple months. But of course that was too good to be true.

November came and what did it bring with it? Lockdown! Fast forward to December and we’re officially out of lockdown again, yay we can finally go out to eat. So that lasted all of 2 weeks and then boom. The tier system. Guess what tier London was put in? Tier 3 and then a magically created tier 4 just for us. You know that “ah shit here we go again” GTA meme, yeah that was the vibe now. Christmas cancelled. My birthday cancelled. That was the year as we knew it lol. Although, I did manage to enjoy Christmas and my birthday despite the restrictions - it’s what you make of it after all.

Despite the madness that was 2020, the year overall was definitely one of growth; both personally and professionally. Work was tough at times and working from home really did begin to take it’s toll. Some days I woke up ready to take on the day, but other days motivation was at it lowest; but I pushed through because I told myself that I can do it! I’m a problem solver you see, so for me there’s always a solution. Of course this platform helped a lot - another gem to come out of 2020. We were able to focus our free time on sometime constructive and something we enjoyed doing and we’ve been able to build such a great community of likeminded people because of it! I myself also began learning about the stock market and investing in stocks. It’s been a fun journey so far and I just love learning new things - I can’t wait to share with you guys. This year also made me feel thankful, thankful for health, for a support system around me and thankful that I’ve been able to spend the year working safely from my home while doing what I love.

I’m looking forward to see what blessing 2021 will bring.