We at KBIA have found strength in our community during the COVID crisis. In our series, “Where You’re At,” we're talking to our family and friends to see how their coping during the pandemic.
Here is Chris Mitchell’s call with Mikayla Logan, a teacher at a Columbia Montessori school:
How are you doing? How are you doing in this sort of new COVID-19 type United States pandemic stuff we're in?
I'm trying to keep my cool. It's rough, it's hard. It's tough. It's uncomfortable. It's nerve racking. It has you on high alert 24/7 for everything. My throat hurts and then I freaked out like oh my god, Am I dying? You know, and so it just the whole thing makes you on edge.
So it sounds like the coronavirus affected your job at work at the Columbia Montessori?
Yeah, definitely. I mean, we shut down for what like 40 days or something like that. Coming back to work, there are an unreasonable amount…it's not actually unreasonable. It's just a lot of new rules, new stipulations, new requirements and lots of changes. And we're doing this thing called…rolling drop off. Basically, parents are required to have their kids fill out these medical forms. The day of they have to be wiped down. We're very strict about what is and isn't allowed in the building. You cannot go get food on your break and bring it back to the building. None of that.
So in the 40 days where or 40 or so days where the Montessori was closed, what were you doing?
That first week of it, I was just at home bored out of my mind, I hated it. And then that Monday, I started working for one of my Montessori families. And I went to their house every day from 7:45 to five, and four weeks maybe until we could go back to school. And so I continued to work. I did Instacart shop at the beginning. And then I abruptly stopped that when the stores were empty, and it just kind of got a little awkward to deliver to people because people were awkward.
So in light of that, what are some of the ways that you've been how we've been sort of able to try to fight through it or like trying to find some silver linings in the clouds?
Oh, I mean, to an extent just appreciate what you can have. My family has now had three birthdays during all this, and I haven't gotten to see my family on any of those. My father was a fireman, so he's very strict about quarantine type stuff. And appreciate the little things. Watch a lot of Netflix.