ON LIVING FEARLESSLY

Ever exuberant and never to rest on her laurels, TESSA PRIETO-VALDES’ endless pursuit for rich life experiences constantly reminds us to be joyful and grateful, always on the lookout for a cause for celebration

- SARA SIGUION-REYNA 

Tessa Prieto-Valdes knows that when restrictions are lifted, the new normal will be a strange and exciting time. “Getting our lives back on track after lockdown will be equally exciting and daunting for many of us. While we will surely find ourselves needing to embrace new ways of living and working, it’s important to stay positive and focused on our life’s purpose,” she says. Taking the time to reset and refresh has been a blessing, and according to her has provided a great opportunity for a lifechanging and voluntary shift in behavior. “We need to view the lifting of lockdown as one step on the road back to how we wish to live,” says Tessa. “This extraordinary crisis has allowed everyone to recalibrate what matters to us, and to think afresh about what we might do differently in the future.”

There has been a rise of small businesses during quarantine, with people taking advantage of the digital age to hawk their products. Tessa believes that this is a good thing, as it allows businesses to spread their reach. “For those businesses that had already invested in the use of technology, adapting may have been quite straightforward. In contrast, some companies struggled to change processes and functions, resulting in what for some were rather chaotic early days when the pandemic first hit,” she says.