Personal Updates – Page 2 – Christopher Wink

How was your pandemic?

This month the U.S. government suspended the health emergency, effectively ending the pandemic.

That doesn’t mean covid-19 is gone (it isn’t); it doesn’t mean it won’t flare back up (it could); it doesn’t mean we won’t have another pandemic someday (we might). But it does mark the end of this nearly 3.5 year period.

Millions of lives were lost, and economic and psychological trauma was enacted, all of which we’re still confronting. As a coping mechanism, a friend and I were talking about the little behavior changes that took root, some of which we may reference for years to come. At the very beginning my Technical.ly newsroom was interested in what and how we would create.

I kept up my resolutions, and they were different than before covid-19. I’ll always reference these few simple behavior changes that now feel entrenched as part of me after so many life changes:

CityCast interview on THRIVING

Prompted by Technical.ly’s year-long THRIVING reporting series, I joined the CityCast podcast. We’re interviewing hundreds of people from a half-dozen other cities, plus following 10 Philadelphians for a full year to help understand: What are the obstacles and opportunities to economically thrive?

Listen here.

After 7 years, I am no longer Generocity.org publisher

This was originally published on Technical.ly. I republished it here because it feels an especially personal update. This post completes a resolution of mine for the year.

After seven years of publishing Generocity.org, Technical.ly’s parent company Technically Media has transitioned the nonprofit-industry news site to Civic Capital, a philanthropic consultancy.

This is personal to me. In 2015, I led the effort to acquire Generocity, which was founded by philanthropist Sandra Baldino years prior. In the ensuing years, I was publisher for both Technical.ly, which expanded its geographic focus, and Generocity, which remained focused in Philadelphia. Both followed a similar playbook: Find an important industry that is typically covered nationally and report obsessively on it with a local lens.

The parenting lifecycle

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.

Newborn 0-3 mo
Infant 3-6 mo
Baby 6-12 mo
(Parents are always tired)

Toddler: 1-3 yrs
Pre-schooler: 3-5 yrs
(Parents are always late)

Grade-schooler: 5-13 yrs
Teenager: 13-20
(Parents are apparently always wrong)

My 2023 Resolutions

My 2022 had its challenges and macroeconomic complexity threatens to make 2023 harder still.

Call me naive then but I maintain that it will be difficult to surpass the crush that was 2020, and even the daze that was 2021. I am optimistic that even if 2023 features a recession it will be a painful part of the journey out of this pandemic.

That attitude shines through in my resolutions for next year. I have two kids, new hobbies and a very different business than I had in 2019.

My 2022 in review

Another pandemic year, another year of personal discovery.

The books I read in 2022

Years back, I only read a handful of books each year and spent a lot more time on articles, blog posts and social media. Around 2016, I started publishing notes here that I took from the few books I did read, and I found it helpful to review what I learned from a slower, deeper medium.

From then on, I resolved to put more time into books, and I kicked that off with a resolution to focus on women and authors of color. A book a month seemed a realistic goal, as I juggled work and other priorities. Then the pandemic hit. In 2020, which included the birth of my first child, I read far less, and I thought my goal was doomed. But by 2021, I rediscovered my neighborhood library and found that I needed an escape from the breaking news — while still learning. I read more books in 2021 than ever before in my adult life. Then in 2022 I more than doubled that total — even though my second kid arrived that year.

Point is that I’ve gotten great joy out of engaging with books, especially from that local library. Below I recap the books I read this year for my own recollection.

Named among the 100 Pennsylvanians having the biggest mission impact

It meant something real to be named by City&State as among 100 Pennsylvanians making the deepest impact toward their mission. I run a news organization, so I know how erratic nominations can be from publishers, but I also know lots of people put real effort into acknowledging serious work. Thank you.

Lil Technical.ly shoutout from New York Times

The New York Times gave a nice nod to good local reporting by Technical.ly’s Holly Quinn.

We published this simple interview with a State Auditor candidate that added to the public record to inform this piece by the country’s paper of record.

new-york-times-york-delaware-technically

The Parable of St Laurentius

Note: This historic church in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood is being replaced.

I want to tell you the parable of St Laurentius Church

St Laurentius is an old church, at least by American standards. It was built in 1882, with the donations from Polish families who wanted something of their own — beyond the other Catholic Church nearby that catered to Irish Catholics.