Storyteller: Jillian Pike
Amber is a 19 year old from Reese, Michigan. She is a certified nurse and works at a nursing home taking care of the elderly who claims to have found out about the virus through the news or through word of mouth in either January or February of 2020. Amber, a young nursing college student says her daily life changed because she was forced to move out of her dorm and had to start online classes and in turn started to feel daily anxiety and saw her friends and boyfriend a lot less for safety reasons. She also says there were a lot of changes at work such as PPE, physical distance from patients and a lot of sadness among her residents. Amber says that she gained a sense of strength knowing that she was helping to fight the disease at work and gained a lot more respect for nurses in general. She also says she has gained skills in Zoom classrooms, got a lot of time with her puppy and gained about five pounds. Amber goes on to tell us that she has lost many peoples lives that were near and dear to her heart and lost all respect for people who don’t care about the effects of the virus and lost her fun college years and chances to make lifelong friends and also lost a little bit of her sanity. Amber then opens up and tells about feeling the complete dread and pain of everyone at work who just wanted the pandemic to be over and the looks of fear on her residence faces. But then tries to make light of the situation by saying that all of the PPE makes her sweaty. Amber concludes her interview by saying that the pandemic has taught her to appreciate every minute with someone and taught her a lot about infection control.
MIPandemicStory 