Storyteller: Alexus Knapik
Haley Hickey, 19 years old, works in a daycare, babysits part-time, and is a full-time college student. She is fully involved with everything she does and loves spending time with her family. She found out about the pandemic when it first started in China, hearing about it on the news she knew it was going to come to the United States and it wasn’t going to be good. A few months later and she was right. Her life changed a little, but nothing drastic.
She began to get tested at the beginning of every week. This was a little scary because she didn’t know what her test was going to come back as and if she tested positive it could affect a ton of people. Her work didn’t shut down and she was still able to babysit. As school came along for the next semester classes were switched to online. She wasn’t terribly upset about this, because she enjoyed having the time at home to do her school work. She did miss out on having a fun summer, last year’s summer was way more fun. She took the extra time she had and worked on herself a little more. She focused on herself and got a few different things in order. In the end, she needed the extra downtime and it helped. Nothing too exciting happened during the pandemic.
She did realize a few things during this pandemic. Working with a mask on is not fun. Haley thinks it gets very hot and sweaty and it makes working uncomfortable. The individuals working in the hospitals and any other essential worker is a “trooper” for being able to wear it consistently. She also realized that staying home and spending time with her family and her dog is fun and you gotta make the best out of your situation. Keep your distance, because you never know what anyone has. You don’t want to put your family or others at risk when it comes down to it.
MIPandemicStory 