Last Wednesday, I flew to Panama to deliver two keynotes. I was excited for the trip. I’d been once before as a kid and remembered the beautiful country.
I completed the first talk on Thursday evening and the second on Friday morning. I left feeling energized and headed back to the hotel to take a few calls before heading to the airport.
At 12:56pm local time, I was on the top floor of my hotel when I started to feel a light rumbling sensation in my chair.
But then, chaos. The floor started to shake. The entire building started to sway. Things started falling off the counters and onto the floor.
I would shortly find out that a 7.7 magnitude earthquake was underway. Over the next 30 hours as I tried to find my way home, there were 161 aftershocks, including several 6.0+ magnitude tremors.
In this piece, I share my stream-of-consciousness perspectives from going through a massive earthquake.
How everything got smaller. How I was reminded that shared struggle builds bonds. Why awareness is so very perishable.
And why bad luck may not be so bad...
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