I sense I’m one of many people making big decisions as we emerge from lockdown. First, it was about surviving, then trying to thrive in really challenging circumstances. Teachers have worked so hard, despite what some in the press have had to say. I don’t know anyone in FE who hasn’t grafted. And I totally understand that for some people, "getting back to normal" means being face to face with colleagues and in a classroom again.

For others, working digitally has been a game-changer. It has for me and I’m also an epidemiology fan, so I’m not convinced Covid-19 is going anywhere soon. I love being face to face with people. Yet I can also see the many wisdoms of dialling up the blend, so that remote working becomes a significant part of the norm. For this reason, my big decision is that in January and February, I will only be working remotely and if it pans out, I’ll do that annually. I’ve tweeted it now, so I’ll have to. 

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Travelling the country

Pre-Covid, I was travelling up and down the country on trains. As a freelancer working on national professional development programmes in FE, I was thankfully in demand and I was also making monthly trips up to Edinburgh to see my son. I even went to Australia at the end of 2018 – all that way to give an hour’s lecture in Melbourne!

When I came back I had a stroke. The causes were complex, but the lifestyle definitely didn’t help. I’d made a virtue of travelling; ritually unpacking my little nomadic home into a Premier Inn hotel room. I loved seeing different places and became adept at finding cheap first-class train tickets (at my own expense) to travel in style. But I was wearing myself out. Post-stroke, I took it steadier for a while but as I recovered the travelling ramped up again until it was as demanding as ever. Then lockdown.

On 27 March 2020, we took the National Advanced Practitioner Conference online. This major event, originally to be held in Birmingham, had 120 people signed up – and we had 120 people online. I could not stop thinking about those 120 journeys and the cost to the environment.

I’ve had a "good" lockdown. I didn’t have little ones to look after, I was shielding to look after my mum so I didn’t need to worry about going out and about. I got fit. I did up my garden. I cooked nice food and I worked – hard. Pro bono as the work dried up for a couple of months, but I wasn’t spending much and I soon received the government grant for the self-employed. It was like being on Universal Basic Income, doing the work I really loved, without waiting for someone to offer me a commission.

That’s where the #JoyFE? movement started, with an early morning broadcast designed to lift the spirits, without being uncritical about where FE found itself. In #JoyFE?I found a community and a rich online life, which seemed as real as anything to me. Equally, I missed my son deeply, but looked forward each week to meeting him and our South London family online, far from our own northern homes.

I’m proud of our country in lockdown. Because we did what we did, transmission rates are falling; we are winning – for now. And I want to get back to being physically with people, albeit socially distanced (as I write this, it seems hopeful we might get to start hugging again by November!) But, after "physical" became such a luxury to one living alone, I want those encounters to really matter. I’ve no desire at all to start haring around the country for the sake of it again.

So, in the coldest, dullest, most hopeless months, I’m going to stay home, with my cat and my central heating. A couple of years ago, I travelled weekly from my South Yorkshire home to Blackburn during the various Beasts from the East. Any reader who has had experience of Northern Rail will know exactly what that means – brrrrr! It was a lovely piece of work, but it wasn’t something that had to be physical. It was physical only because no-one - including myself - had ever imagined otherwise.

I’ll keep you posted on Twitter @LouMycroft #WinterDigital. It might be two months of beans on toast. I might swap South Yorkshire for the Seychelles (much less likely). It could be a disaster. Or a respite. It may never be right for you, and maybe not for me either but until I try it – who knows?

Lou Mycroft is a facilitator, writer and public speaker. She tweets @LouMycroft.