Did 2020 change your life?
I didn’t know it would, but 2020 has most definitely changed MY life, no doubt.
Plus, it’s been a YEAR since we had P4 2020! A full year today!
Can you believe it? It’s already been a year since our first annual P4 DID Conference. Where has the time gone….
Friday night, 28 Aug, we had our live Art Display, opening the P4 DID Conference with amazing bursts of color. Covid was still wreaking havoc on venue options, but in a last-minute pinch, MetroNBI hosted an amazing display of hundreds of art pieces collected from dozens of trauma survivors and trauma therapists. We scrambled around, but it was still an awesome display of art related to trauma survivors themselves.
In 2020, we were still in the early days of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic — Arizona did not allow gatherings to be larger than 50 people, we had serious social distancing requirements, and our venue still represented itself as “closed” on its website. However, with some adjustments, and with many agreements to be Covid-compliant, we still had our amazing conference. Trauma survivors came in from all parts of the country in order to participate at the Live Event. That was mind-boggling, and beyond incredible to see.
The P4 DID Conference in Phoenix, Arizona 2020 changed my life. Absolutely, and without a doubt. And for that matter, it changed the lives of lots of people.
Our forum community visually met each other for the first time, and the ability to speak, face-to-face has changed the way we managed group interactions.
Peer support is even more powerful when you connect with people around the world who are experiencing and feeling so much of what you’re going through. Beginning at the P4 Conference, we built a depth of connection that hasn’t been broken.
While P4 changed our lives, so has Covid-19 and this worldwide pandemic.
The Effects of COVID-19 for Kathy
Where are you, Kathy?
Well, I am still in Texas. Yep. Still here. Since March 2020, still here. I’ve travelled around the USA from time to time, but yep, I’m still located in Texas as my Covid-required home base.
I have not made it back to Australia. My return flight has not yet been re-instated. The Australian borders are still closed, and entry is severely limited, making flights to Australia massively expensive and hard to come by. As an American citizen, I do not qualify for the Australian repatriation flights, so while I would be allowed to return to Australia as an Australian resident, I would have purchase my own ticket, if I could find a plane, and then fly at the First Class Business rate. Oh my goodness, while that would be luxurious, and comfortable, that is well out of my reach, in reality. And then there’s the required $3000 hotel quarantine, and navigating the ongoing lockdowns still happening in Australia. Don’t get me started — there are so many complications to address…
It’s been a long time now, and there is, in so many ways, no clear end in sight. The new Delta variant continues to create messes around the world, creating more border closures, lockdowns and social distancing requirements. I’m sure we will eventually get our world back to some sense of calm and manageable, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Have you had Covid? I did. In fact, our whole household did. It was life-threateningly serious for one of my family members, but thank goodness, we all made it through and are recovering well. It’s a strange and mysterious virus. One teenager was not affected at all — ever — and yet her momma collapsed lifeless, and had repeated medical crises, including covid pneumonia. The rest of us landed somewhere in the middle for how many symptoms we each experienced. There is such a huge difference in the ways this virus hits people. It’s hard to understand, obviously hard to catch, and certainly hard to manage.
Rules keep changing. We’re better, we’re not better. We have more freedom, we have less freedom. We’re wearing masks, we’re not wearing masks. We’re getting vaccines, we’re afraid of vaccines. We have open borders, we have closed borders. It’s just going to be a wild ride for awhile, it appears.
SO… amongst all the flip-flopping going around the world, I’ve made a decision. A big decision. Covid has outlasted me, and I cannot manage living in two countries.
Officially Re-Locating Back to America!
Yep, you got that right.
I’m coming back. Well. I’m actually already here, ha. But, officially, I’m “coming back”.
Talk about an overwhelming process. This is my FOURTH international move, (my sixth international move if I count university), and once again, due to Covid restrictions, I am starting over in my life with just suitcases. I have what I packed in March 2020. Two suitcases and a carry-on case. I’ve accumulated a few small things through the year, of course, (just suitcase-sized items), but for the most part, all my stuff is still sitting in Australia, in my lovely little ocean-side cottage. How to get all that? Oooooh gosh, that’s so complicated. However… I know where to begin.
Step one: getting united with my dogs. If you’ve read many of the articles in this blog, or watched any of the videos, you’ll know that my dogs have always important to me, and while I was living in Australia, my silver kelpies have been with me, every step of the way. I’ve enjoyed litters of beautiful little silver pups, memories that I will treasure forever. At one point in time, I had Pinky and Joe plus ten puppies, ha! Now THAT was a handful. However, all those pups went to other wonderful families.
I still have three of them — Pinky, JoeJoe, and Pixie. They are a mom-dad-puppy family of their own, and they were my most dearest and precious companions through all my years in Australia. Starting with Pinky way back in 2012. We’ve been best buds, and then just added to our pack.
I’ve already started the process of bringing the dogs over here to Texas. I’ve been working with JetPets, and while the dogs are not here yet, they will be soon.
If you are interested in following along with the story of my three silver kelpies coming to America, you can read along with the updates I have been posting here. Reuniting a family internationally separated: Covid.
The dogs should arrive here in the USA in September 2021. That’s an incredible change in MY life this year, and while I have many conflicted feelings about leaving Australia in 2021, the truth is, I can’t get there anyway. I’m still stuck here. Who am I kidding to think I could get back there? I can’t. Flights between USA and Australia just aren’t happening.
So instead of fighting the obvious, I’m just going to go with where I’ve been planted, and let life take a new twist for me. WITH my dogs, of course. (It’s a little ironic that the dogs can fly easier than I can fly, hey?!!)
Yes, big big changes in 2021.
So……. what’s ahead now?
Will there be another P4 Conference?
The exciting news is that YES! There will be another conference!
P4² is on it’s way!
I have been getting emails, comments, and messages from people again, from all over the country, asking if we are going to host another conference. ABSOLUTELY YES!
There are a lot of differences for 2021, so let me list out some of the information you may want to know.
What to expect for P4² DID Conference
DATE: 22-24 October 2021
LOCATION: Chicago, Illinois
VENUE: Royal Sonesta Chicago Downtown at the Riverfront
CONFERENCE RATE: Yes, there is a discounted conference rate for the Sonesta (LINKS for the hotel discount to be provided soon)
THREE Day Event: Friday has an extra daytime activity, plus Saturday and Sunday are both full days, and two evening events as well.
HOSTED by: MetroNBI of Phoenix, Arizona
SPEAKERS: Dr Amezcua-Patino, Kathy Broady, Laura Boettger, and Dedra Serafin
EXTRA GOODIES: Absolutely! But I’ll tell you about all the events, activities, artwork, music, puzzle plans at a later time.
DEDICATED CONFERENCE WEBSITE: P4DIDConference.com
I’ll soon be telling you heaps more about the upcoming conference, but use this information to save the dates!
If you are super eager to plan and schedule your trip to Chicago for the conference ASAP, please contact us . Email Alex will help give you all the required information, as we do have it available. We are currently building a dedicated conference website, so all that info will soon be at your fingertips, but for now, feel free to email Alex if you need to plan.
Our Awesome Email Alex can help you get your hotel reservations, and clarify many of your questions.
A pandemic, 2020, and P4 changed our lives last year.
I can only imagine how a pandemic, 2021 and P4² will change our lives this year.
Thanks for reading.
Hope to see you in Chicago!!
Kathy
Copyright © 2008-2021 Kathy Broady MSW and Discussing Dissociation
I sure was with you last year at the P4 conference and will be there again this year. COVID may be keeping me from being there in person in Chicago but I will be ZOOMing in again this year. I am excited to be able to do so. Last year I was super nervous about ZOOMing in and being seen and actually sharing myself with others in real time and real faces. At first I did not turn my camera on. I was too shy and embarrassed to do so. I couldn’t even look at the folks who were there.
Well, finally my curiosity overtook me and I looked to see who was ZOOMing in with me. The very first person that I saw was one of my Discussing Dissociation Community Forum friends and I felt an overwhelming over-the-moon happiness to see her. She was the first DID person that I had ever seen (well, that I knew of anyway) and the feeling of connection was astounding. She was DID and real and it somehow made me feel real and okay all of a sudden. It was like, yes I have DID and so do all of these other folks but we are just (special) regular, beautiful, present people. So, I turned my camera on too!
We will be there at the conference. Already have the days off work. 👍🏼
And we know it will be really good.
We know how important your sweet dogs be to you. And we know how much you do for us and other people. The doggies need their mama with them! It would he so awful awful hard if we had to be separated from our dogs for even a week… and 18 months be unimaginable!!! We be so glad you will have them soon. Finally!