For our team, this month has been a mad dash what with keeping up with Graduation orders, numerous team building activities (stay tuned to our blog to find out all about this in my next post); oh and the various Christmas events we’ve been invited to as well as prepping things for the launch of our new website (exciting times ahead :)) – I think you get the picture of how our days have panned out lately.
So you’re probably thinking – “what’s this got to do with shoeboxes or stationeries for that matter”; and that’s where I get to the nicer side of our December. A few weeks ago, mid all these crazy antics, my colleague Johanna sent me a facebook message with a link to the ‘Lovin Malta Millied Challenge’. (even though we sit less than a metre apart; me and my manager tend to communicate mostly by email and facebook messenger. Antisocial? maybe a bit but it really has worked for us, also at times I must admit some of her replies have made me chuckle).
I tend to get side-tracked easily, so back to Lovin Malta and their challenge. For those few individuals still unfamiliar with this recent website that has gone viral; Lovin Malta is ‘the bomb’. They are your number one go-to for anything currently trending on the Maltese islands and they also have an extremely humorous way with words. In case I didn’t make it clear already – I’m a big fan!
I started reading into their ‘Millied Challenge’ and my immediate response was ‘challenge accepted’. We all spend a lot over the Christmas period and sometimes it’s really stressful buying gifts for everyone and going to a billion get-togethers being organised by all your different groups of friends and colleagues.
Sometimes we forget the true meaning of Christmas and the magic behind it. Unfortunately not everyone is as lucky so it’s great to give something back to these people. Who knew that all it could take to make someone’s day (or probably year) was an old shoe box, some wrapping paper (ok I’ll admit I had some difficulty when it came to wrapping the box) and a few small presents all bought from my local stationery. In financial terms it literally came down to one less bottle of wine (the bonus was less calories too ;))
I was taken aback by this great initiative (as was Johanna) and it got us thinking that our colleagues would have the same reactions. So we roped our company in to the challenge and were extremely pleased to have so many of our employees support this (although we heard a few bribed others to wrap their box….)! Here’s a shot of us with our boxes ready to take to Lovin Malta’s headquarters.
Towards the end of the year, I tend to take some time out to reflect on how things have gone. 2016 has definitely been a big one for me; not only as an athlete but also as an individual relatively new to the world of employment. I have changed a lot as a person and grown in many ways but primarily this year has made me appreciate just how special our team is. Despite being so busy in our different units, we all managed to find some time to help others in need. What a way to end the year!