F-F-F-F-Furloughed

Historians will write about 2020 for years to come. The Coronavirus, in particular a strain called COVID-19, is currently crippling the world. We live in strange times right now.

It started with Italy shutting down, which a few of my friends were upset about because they had travel plans. My concern level: 1

Fast forward a few weeks, travelling to certain areas of the US prompted a mandatory 14-day quarantine in which you were not allowed to leave your house. My concern level: 3. I started to wonder what would happen if it hit Kansas.

Then my job started taking extra sanitary precautions. More hand sanitizer stations, greater availability of Lysol wipes, plastic gloves in the break room, and encouraging "social distancing" by removing the keyboard from every other cubicle. Colleges across Kansas closed down and moved their classes to all online. (All of my classes were already online so nothing changed for me). My concern level: 5.

Other cities in other states start issuing stay at home orders, and companies start furloughing employees. My concern level: 8. At this point, I am nervous that I am going to get furloughed, and wondering how I am going to pay my bills if I can't leave my house. Grocery stores change their hours, and everyone starts hoarding toilet paper for some reason. Seriously, I mean the shelves were empty for a solid week. It's *kind of* getting better, but not really. People are stocking up on food, making it really hard to find what you need. Personally, I budget my groceries week to week, so I couldn't afford to go stock up. Luckily I was able to get enough essentials to last me until my next paycheck.

Ultimately, the inevitable happened. On Tuesday, March 24th, Marriott International announced that they were shutting down the call center to comply with Sedgwick County's stay at home order. Mind you we had the capability for everyone to work from home, but we just did not have the call volume. My heart sank through the floor, I was worried about myself and I was worried for my associates. The majority of my team struggles paycheck to paycheck. I made sure to let them know to reach out to me if they needed anything. I packed up the essentials from my desk, and I walked out of the building I have been going to almost every single day for 2.5 years. It was a little devastating to be honest.

A few days later, we get an email from our HR lady letting us know that instead of being closed for the duration of the 30 day stay at home order, we would actually be closed until May 30th, just over 60 days. I had to figure out how to file unemployment, redo my budget to make sure I could pay what I NEED to pay, and at the same time keep up on my school work. The last week has been tough on me emotionally and mentally. People that have kids must have it worse though.

In the middle of all of this, things... ended with my current love interest. The icing on the cake, really. But as per the usual, life goes on. At least I don't have to see him every day at work for the time being. Although, he does live in the next building over so that may prove difficult. I think the hardest part, besides it being non-mutual, is that I actually miss his kids. Never thought I would say that considering I don't even want kids. That's another topic for another time though.

To summarize, life is a little rough right now. 2020 is definitely going to be one for the books! As in, the history books, literally. Gotta love the memes though