The coronavirus pandemic has affected millions of people across the globe, including college students. Schools and colleges have shifted classes online for the rest of the semester, graduation and other school activities have been cancelled and students’ academic plans have been affected. Many Tallahassee Community College students returned home, some students stayed in town, but all of them are doing their best to fulfill their academic requirements to finish out the semester despite the societal upheaval.
By Kory Baker | Student Submission
The world seems to be turning itself upside down with this COVID-19 and everyone is hiding indoors and hoarding supplies. My life shifted into somewhat of a “twilight zone.” Instead of normal day-to-day activities, my days were now filled with Target red and khaki.
As a Target employee, we were labelled essential, meaning I could not self isolate and quarantine like most people. While I am thankful to have a place of employment, I have multiple people in my life who have weakened immune systems.
This means I have a risk of passing any kind of germs that I contract onto them. If anything were to happen to them because of me, I have no idea how I could ever forgive myself.
In my job, I fill online orders for pickup and ship orders to guests to their home. This means that with everyone trying to stay home as much as possible that our workload has increased tremendously.
We have a goal of shipping out 3,000 orders to guests and we also have order pickups coming in non-stop. This means that our department is being hit very hard trying to help people get the essentials they need.
On returning home from work, I am greeted at the door with a can of Lysol to spray me and my clothes down, trying to disinfect anything we can. Then my clothes go straight into the wash so I can get ready to live the groundhog day all over again.
Kory Baker is a student at Tallahassee Community College.
How has this global pandemic affected your life as a TCC student / faculty member / staff member? We want to hear from you. Please send us your story: https://forms.gle/ea4z2LjBQho8FadW7
