This series illustrates COVID-19’s effect on Midwesterners — one person at a time.
“I’ve been at my job for 10 months now, and it’s my first ‘grown up’ job since leaving Drake in 2017. The job market is incredibly tough, and I’m so lucky to have landed this job in the first place. I’m working in communications, which I love. But being responsible for social media and having the agency rely on me for daily status updates means that I never really get to do what’s really important [for me]: taking time away from news and social media opinions.
“[Because of my mental illness], I’ve always made the analogy that if I was a cell phone, everyone else would be able to charge themselves to 100% and my 100% would be 70%. But nobody can see it.
“Since I started working from home 5 weeks ago, I feel like my maximum battery charge has been 50% while everyone else has been cut down to 85%. I look at what other people have been able to accomplish while working from home and feel that I don’t measure up.
“Then my mind goes from ‘I don’t measure up’ to ‘I don’t deserve a job’ when so many hardworking people are out of one.”
— Sarah
Council Bluffs, Iowa
