As Governor Evers extends our “Safer at Home” order through Memorial Day Weekend for everyone here in Wisconsin, I figured I take the time to write my day to day work as an essential employee and shifting my job tasks as the new normal is reveled within our work environment as a closed facility.

It’s crazy how a pandemic and quarantine/social distancing life has unofficially changed my day to day job as a security officer in a library environment. Yes, I still do the usual security rounds to check on the building and the equipment to make sure it doesn’t go amiss, but there is only so much I can do when there is no patron to control or look after within the building, and that can get bored rather quickly.

There are other tasks that I continually have to updated throughout the system with lost and found and our bulletin boards that promote events/tutors/etc… but again, when there is no events happening or patrons losing items within the library, it’s all become one and done for me to work on.

I am sure by now some of you are wondering, well then what the hell do you do all day when most of your work is provided based on the traffic of patrons?

Honestly, that’s where my capabilities come in. During this pandemic I have been cross training, more likely crash training, into other roles including circulation (book returns), and helping scanning for the Interlibrary Loans from requests of chapters and articles provided by our libraries on UW Campus to help assist academic staff and students for their online classes.

Even though this is temporary for me, I am grateful to be able to stay flexible with learning and the essential position I hold, so I can ensure the safety of my colleagues within my library system and allowing them to stay home and work and/or taking care of their families during this time; this opportunity in disguise is also allowing myself not to induce into my insanity by being coupe up in my bedroom at the apartment I reside in for too long and limiting my work to just online training for my position. It also assists in me moving around.

With that being said, there has been a lot of twists and turns in my new normal-ish life and this quarantine and social distancing has been a huge testament and continues to be for what I am trying to strive for accomplishments in my life and blueprint the next chapter for this intense novel called, My Life.

I know my current life and work situation is nowhere similar to the majority of the World’s adjustment and life flow, especially for those who are not state employees and/or are essential employees in general. Even though it can be a mental struggle from time to time with this new life, I try to keep the perspective of others who have it far worse than me who’s struggling with unemployment, and especially those who had a worse case or even died from COVID-19.

Writing this helps me realize my situation could be beyond worse than it is, so I am surely grateful even if I do not have all of my shit together and not being able to be with my partner, considering we still live apart and he is part of the high risk population, so protecting him to a level with social distancing and not being together since before I was sick mid-March.

Yes, I was sick prior to the “Safer at Home” which was suspected to be COVID-19. No, I was not tested, but I had similar mild symptoms with being sick for two weeks straight. I guess we never will know if, in fact, it’s true or not. I’m just glad that today, God has given me another day to breathe and enjoy the sun, as well as blessed my illness did not get my roommates sick.

So now you have a small insight of the last month of As the Quarantine World Turns… now onto the sequel.