Do you know what I said last year? Over 100 times on video, I said, “Hello, I’m Green, your 2021 President of MDRT.” But every time I said it, I was in a small green room, almost alone, completely quiet. So it’s great to be able to say it to you here in person, instead of recording on that screen.

It is brilliant to be back on the MDRT stage as my time on the Executive Committee comes to a close because here is where it all started. In 2017 I walked out onto a stage just like this to accept the nomination to serve. And, in March 2020, I had just finished writing my incoming Presidential Address to deliver on stage at the Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California. But then, as we all know, COVID-19 hit. We stayed at home. June 2021 arrived. We were still in the pandemic, no meeting in New Orleans. My Presidential Address couldn’t have been more different from the nominee speech four years before. Instead of being on stage in front of 15,000 MDRT members, I was at home alone looking at myself on a little screen.

Thankfully, many of you responded to my request that you send in photos of yourself, so I was still able to feel surrounded by friends. But I became the first ever MDRT President to fulfill the role entirely from my house.

One of the really great things you normally get to do as President is to host a meeting for the MDRT Global Council volunteer members in your hometown. We had have a business meeting in the city of London, near all those recognizable landmarks, but there was also an opportunity to share a little of where we live. So we were going to go to a park local to my house. It’s where I go with my family. It’s where I cycle and run. It’s an ancient Royal Park. Hundreds of years ago, it was King Henry VIII’s hunting grounds. The deer still roam freely, and there is a tree that’s over 750 years old. We were shown around by John. John started working at the park 25 years ago, around the same time I first qualified for MDRT, and he recently retired.

During the full lockdown, everyone either had to stay in their home or be socially distanced in a public space. One of the few places people could go near where I live was the park. So it got used a lot more than it normally did. Some of the paths that existed in the park became widened where more and more people had walked on them. And there were paths in places where there had never been paths before, where people took new routes across expanses of grass, which gradually became new paths.

So I said to John, “When this pandemic is all over, how are you going to try to get the park back to how it was? Is it going to go back to normal?” And he replied, “They’ll do some of it. Some of those widened paths should be bought back into shape and narrowed again. They’ll try, but they may not succeed with every path. Some may just get worn again. And the same for those expanses of grass — some of it will be reseeded to get it to grow back, make it look like it used to. But you know what? Some people just like walking that way. Now it’s a new path. That’s going to stay. It’s what people want. And other paths people will forget about. Nature will take its course. Plants will grow back, but in time you’ll never even know it existed.” I reflected on his answer, and I thought those paths are like our lives and work after COVID. Some of it’s going to go back to normal, but some of it, no matter how hard we try, is going to change. It’s never going to be the same again, whether we like it or not. But whatever happens, John said, that’s the way the park looks now.

We could lament change. We could be angry at what we lost, what we missed out on, but a better way is just to accept what happened and enjoy where we are. John’s answer about the park quickly became a life lesson for me: Embrace change. Let’s be grateful for what we have.

My next question to John was “If you had a magic wand, what one thing would you do to improve the park?” And he said, “For just one day a month, I’d stop the constant activity. No people, no visitors, no work, no vehicles driving through from one gate to another, no food and beverage sales at the kiosk. Just let nature have a moment alone to recover.” Once again, John’s answer about the park I found applied to our lives just as much. We are busy. The pace of life is increasing every day; the pressure is on: If only I could work a bit harder this week, earn a bit more money next month, then I’d be happy. Instead of that, why don’t we do for our clients and our families and ourselves what John wanted for the park?

Find time today for a moment alone to recover, relax your body, rest your mind. It’s good for us. It’s good for those around us.

And then finally I said to John, “Will you miss anything now that your time is done?” And he said, “I don’t think I’ll miss it. I did what I did for a long time, 25 years. I served, and I think I achieved everything I could do. Whatever was asked of me I did. I prepared properly. Always, every time I showed up for work, I gave it my best, but now it’s time to let somebody else take their turn.” And he finished by saying, “Actually, I know I won’t miss it because I’m going to keep attending. I’m just going to do it now as a visitor. And without the responsibility and the work to do, I’m going to enjoy it even more.”

We shared a few moments of quiet, reflecting on what had been and what’s to come. And then he smiled, and he left. So, before I leave, there’s only really one thing left to say one last time. I’m Ian Green, and I was your 2021 President of MDRT.