bi-illustration

Lindsay Stockall is a 38-year-old who splits her time between Newport Beach, California and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Business Insider has verified her income and employment history with documentation. The following as-told-to essay has been edited for length and clarity.

Daniel Deceuster used to go to his colleagues for all manner of things big and small. If he needed to convert a rectangular logo into a square, he'd message one of the designers. If he wanted a new dashboard built, he'd set up a meeting with the engineers.

• Emojis are cringe.
• I also love them — in text chains, where you can accomplish a lot with a single character.
• Which is why Google adding emojis to Gmail this year is a huge deal — for me. But you should start using them, too.

I love emojis.

I happened to be on the toilet both times everything changed.

The first was March 11, 2020, the day America's eyes were opened to COVID.