Covid has been a surreal experience for me, it’s something I never imagined I would go through in my lifetime and it has definitely shaped and changed my outlook on many things. I am thankful for all the time it gave me with my family, and the job opportunities it created for me but it has also been a trying time all round. Personally there has been a lot of positives that have come from the negatives. Being stuck in lockdown inspired me to work on existing skills and learn new ones. I spent a lot of time cooking and crocheting with my Cucu (Grandmother) which was great fun. I tried out my first nightshift job which gave me the opportunity to make many new friends and also opened doors to a new early morning job at a different company, where I am currently working. In the midst of lockdown due to Covid-19, The devastating news of George Floyd and the increased my awareness of racism and the Black Lives Matter movement that became widely known arose due to the horrific murder, inspired me to research, attended our family led demonstration in our town, discuss and even at times debate topics of equality which I have always been aware of, but never exposed to.
I was in the unusual position of being unemployed before Covid as I was in between jobs as my previous job at an ice cream parlour recently came to an end as they closed down the store. I applied to many places, mainly supermarkets as they were some of the few businesses still operating and I got a job at a supermarket packing the home shopping deliveries for online customers. This was a nightshift job and I was doing 2AM-8AM shifts, but as the online shopping demand was very high and we were so short staffed, I often stayed on until 10:00/11:00AM. The hours were demanding and it took a lot of getting used to, not just for me but my whole family. I made a make shift black out blind with an duvet cover and I would try to sleep when I came home from work until 2/3pm then would go back to bed after dinner. Of course my sleeping never went to plan and I felt like I was constantly trying to catch up on sleep. It was exhausting for all of us because we had to wash my uniform every day because of Covid-19. I would come home and get straight in a shower, my family would open all doors and have a pillowcase ready for me to put my uniform inside to wash. This job changed my whole families attitude towards Covid, I felt like before, when we were stuck inside, our cleaning habits were almost similar to OCD, we would wipe every item of shopping before we put it away, our doorhandles, light switches and other places we all touched were wiped multiple times a day, the whole process would take us hours, but after going back into the world again and working, we realised we could relax a few of those things. We decided the best approach from now on was to do our absolute best to protect ourselves from Covid, and if our best was only 99% we needed to stop panicking over the 1%, as the final 1% was up to fate.
An opportunity arose for me to get a job at another supermarket, doing the same online picking job but it was closer to where I would be moving back for university and the hours suited me better with 5:00-10:00AM shifts. I felt a lot safer working here compared to the previous supermarket, things were cleaned a lot more and I felt they took Covid procedures a lot more seriously. I am currently still working here and now that I have moved back to Edinburgh I have changed my shifts to 6:00-11:00AM start to suit the bus schedule. This also fits in with my University schedule. Overall I would say that no matter how difficult some times over the last few months have been, I am thankful for the good things that have come from this whole experience.
