This has really affected me a lot because I feel like I was discriminated against for my age and because there are many co-workers who don’t do as good a job as me and they kept their jobs. I miss the job very much. For example, it is the first time I’ve been in my house 100 percent of my time. I’ve worked my whole life, and because I’m not getting enough exercise now, my legs are hurting and I really miss my co-workers. This was going to be my last year of work, and I wanted to be able to save money so that in the future, I would be able to support myself. My family makes do. We’re not behind on paying rent because we’re not buying anything extra or going out. We’re using everything to pay the bills. Late February through later part of March was very surreal for me. As the pandemic grew stronger, I knew this was like nothing that I and many others had ever experienced. All of my scheduled work being canceled as of March 15 and absolutely no sign of anything happening within a few months or longer was frightening. Going through the huge sense of loss and purpose of work was truly humbling. My creativity seemed squashed and lost. It wasn’t until late May or early June that new creative ideas were forming, new ideas that would capture the essence of our community. San Diego is truly an amazing community of diverse, talented actors, singers, dancer, painters and musicians. My new creative ideas were about embracing these times with this community, demonstrating that even in difficult times we can be creative. The wonderful positive out of the COVID pandemic has been that my wife and I have had more time together. We spend many evenings on the patio eating dinner and watching the birds finish their day. As twilight transitions to dark, the bats and owls come out to feed. They all put on quite a show. The fact that we have slowed down and can enjoy these simple pleasures has been rewarding. I do miss our brilliant community of artists, and know that we will be back and creating again once it is safe to do so. If you listen to the news, the jobs that they are talking about I think are kind of the jobs in my field that are not going to be returning anytime soon. So another thing that this has done is really forced me to focus on a new career path, which isn’t something I planned on doing anytime soon. It’s been my career path for as long as I’ve been an adult, so the idea of having to switch to something new is a little jarring, but you pivot and you move on. That has been the part that has been so crazy for me just because it’s been something that I’ve always wanted to do and done, and the idea of changing that so drastically ... the mental toll it’s taking and the unknowns of what work looks like after COVID has been tricky for me to maneuver.
"I feel like I was discriminated against for my age"
This has really affected me a lot because I feel like I was discriminated against for my age and because there are many co-workers who don’t do as good a job as me and they kept their jobs. I miss the job very much. For example, it is the first time I’ve been in my house 100 percent of my time. I’ve worked my whole life, and because I’m not getting enough exercise now, my legs are hurting and I really miss my co-workers. This was going to be my last year of work, and I wanted to be able to save money so that in the future, I would be able to support myself. My family makes do. We’re not behind on paying rent because we’re not buying anything extra or going out. We’re using everything to pay the bills. Late February through later part of March was very surreal for me. As the pandemic grew stronger, I knew this was like nothing that I and many others had ever experienced. All of my scheduled work being canceled as of March 15 and absolutely no sign of anything happening within a few months or longer was frightening. Going through the huge sense of loss and purpose of work was truly humbling. My creativity seemed squashed and lost. It wasn’t until late May or early June that new creative ideas were forming, new ideas that would capture the essence of our community. San Diego is truly an amazing community of diverse, talented actors, singers, dancer, painters and musicians. My new creative ideas were about embracing these times with this community, demonstrating that even in difficult times we can be creative. The wonderful positive out of the COVID pandemic has been that my wife and I have had more time together. We spend many evenings on the patio eating dinner and watching the birds finish their day. As twilight transitions to dark, the bats and owls come out to feed. They all put on quite a show. The fact that we have slowed down and can enjoy these simple pleasures has been rewarding. I do miss our brilliant community of artists, and know that we will be back and creating again once it is safe to do so. If you listen to the news, the jobs that they are talking about I think are kind of the jobs in my field that are not going to be returning anytime soon. So another thing that this has done is really forced me to focus on a new career path, which isn’t something I planned on doing anytime soon. It’s been my career path for as long as I’ve been an adult, so the idea of having to switch to something new is a little jarring, but you pivot and you move on. That has been the part that has been so crazy for me just because it’s been something that I’ve always wanted to do and done, and the idea of changing that so drastically ... the mental toll it’s taking and the unknowns of what work looks like after COVID has been tricky for me to maneuver.
“If you listen to the news, the jobs that they are talking about I think are kind of
the jobs in my field that are not going to be returning anytime soon”
“Not having an income has been difficult to say the least. That is truly the hardest part. But a close second to that
is not being able to
plan anything”
“I feel like I was discriminated against for my age and because there are many
co-workers who don’t do as good a job as me and they kept their jobs”