I cannot sit still for the life of me. I need to be active every minute of the day or I feel like I am at a loss. This social distancing that the COVID virus has caused was definitely stressful because it meant going home for classes instead of being on campus.Â
If I do not do anything, I will just miss all of my friends more and miss the activities I was doing at IUP. This includes working. I had two jobs on campus and now I was done to none.
I need money, but finding work is difficult when I am still doing classes and so many places are closed during the pandemic. Babysitting was out because I knew so many other students who were offering that service. I had to think differently.
That is when I remembered the elderly population in my town.
My town is very small and the elderly can not get around too often, especially with a pandemic. The only store we have is a Dollar General. The closest grocery store is 20 minutes away. It is very rough here.
To combat both my boredom and my need for a job, I have offered to make meals and run errands for anyone in town who needs it. I was not going to charge much either.
I put my offer onto our town’s Facebook page. I did not think anyone would go for it, but I received a message rather quickly. It was a woman asking me to help her disabled stepmother.
She wondered if I could bring her lunch three days a week. I immediately said yes. I knew it would not pay much, but I did not mind. I was improving my cooking skills and helping someone in need.
I highly recommend others try to do the same sort of service if in need of a job during this hard time. It is very enjoyable and does not take away from classwork. A pandemic is going on and we all need to try and help each other in any way we can.