Smile Britannia!

So it seems that we are be heading for what basically is another lockdown for parts of the country this Christmas. 

My father passed a month ago, now I cannot travel down to London to see my mother for Christmas. For me the hardest part of this whole process has been not seeing my elderly parents due to them shielding, as they are both in their 80s.

I kept my distance to protect my parents, then my father got sick and was hospitalised for 3 weeks. We were not allowed to see him the whole time. I felt so angry, as I felt I had wasted the entire year distancing myself from him in order to protect him, but he died anyway.

It was not even COVID, up to today they are not sure what it was. The NHS maybe heroes, but they will have a lot of questions that need answering on the other side of this pandemic.

My father death whilst in their care, will be one of them.

So many people have lost loved ones this year, 2020 for me has been the worst year of my life. This is a feeling shared by millions in the UK for one reason or another.

However, the important thing is to understand you’re not alone, we have all been here before in one way or another and made it out, and we will do it again. We are more stronger and more resilient than we give ourselves credit for.

Recognise that fact, stand up and stay calm and carry on.

The British way, and yes, it’s OK to be proud to be British!

As Britons, we have always been strong as a nation and that is a history, good, bad or ugly that no one can take from us. 2020 may have been a nightmare, but we have got through it and at the end of it.

A vaccine is here and whether you trust it or not, take it or not, it will open up the country again. Some sort of normality will come with it for 2021. Brexit is also finally happening in a few weeks, like it or not, deal or no deal we are out!

Time to stop moaning about it. Nothing will be worse than what COVID has done, inadvertently it has prepared us for the worst Brexit can throw at us and more!

Brexit! Bring it on!

We pride ourselves on the strength of our servicemen and our stand in WW2. There was only one Alan Turing, a gay British man who single handily broke the enigma code and stopped Nazi Germany in its tracks, while struggling with and hiding his own sexuality.

He was a national hero but his life ended in tragic circumstances due to our own ignorance

We are now at a stage as a nation where we embracing this kind diversity and are actually pursuing an anti-racist and anti-discriminatory culture and not just talking about.

Players are taking a knee before every match in the world’s greatest football league.

Organisations are taking on processes to turn into anti-racist organisations, mental health is well and truly on the map. We are now not afraid to speak up on our own mental health and recognise its importance to our wellbeing. This is a huge step forward and a mini revolution.

Well done England!

The above is a great example of how we excel as people and as a nation, time after time in the most extreme of situations. The UK's grit and determination has got us through everything that has been thrown at us.

We always seem to come through more stronger than ever.

We are now at a place where we are about to make our own history. So how do you want to be remembered? This is the first real test as a nation for all generations that came after WW2, if you are born after 1945 which is most of us, then I am talking to you! This is where we make our own history and stories will be told of how we made it through.

Every single personal account will be of much importance!

We will live on to tell stories of how the virus came into being, how it affected all our lives, how we lived through lockdowns, social distancing and how we created a new normal to protect ourselves. We will tell stories of all the deaths that happened and how mental illness became rife in society.

We will talk about how we left Europe and how we all lost our jobs or got furloughed and how the economy collapsed like a house of cards. However, the story will once again end with a legacy of how we made it through with our strength and determination in the good old British way!

Whether its music, art, sport, innovation, ground breaking technology and engineering, all the way to the beauty of our cities and the humour of the British people, we lead the way. We are the UK, the leaders and in almost everything in the world.

We set the trends and the rest of the world follows. It has always been like that!

We are admired throughout the world and that didn’t happened by chance. That happened due to our history and our influence, which has always been underpinned through our determination, resilience and strength.

So if you are feeling a little beat at the moment, it’s OK, we all are!

You are only human just like everyone else.

It is now time to be one as a nation, never mind all the division that is promoted, we are too clever for that! It’s time to take lessons from those who came before us and how they looked after each other during times of similar national tribulations, remember they left a blueprint for us to follow. Let's follow it!

It’s time to check in on your friends and neighbours, time to start acting in a way that is responsible towards one another. It’s time to protect each other. Check in on friends and family, ask about how they are feeling and how they are coping mentally.

Don’t forget to ask yourself the same along those lines.

Start this type of conversation whenever you can, because if we are to come out of this intact,  it needs to be both physically and mentally.

It’s time to do what we always do.

Stand up, brush ourselves down, look straight into the eyes of adversity that is trying to break and destroy us, and remind it, and ourselves of who we are!

So Smile Britannia!