I have written before about my struggles with brain surgery and staying healthy in a COVID-19 world and it’s safe to say it’s hard to navigate. There are no “right” moves or “correct” things to do. It’s hard to be open with the people I work with while also trying to not being pitied. You have to balance putting on your “I’m fine” face with the illnesses I battle daily.

When this internship first came to be it was paid but not a lot.... the hours I worked really equaled out to minimum wage. Last week though that changed when I was offered the ability to come on full time and I gladly accepted. Recently with the past few days I’ve been reminded how much people like me struggle to fit into this world we live in.

Due to my surgeries I struggle with weather changes. Texas has decided that even with a zero percent chance of rain the last two days to have the sky’s open up. This has a pretty adverse effect on me as I can struggle with headaches, vision issues and my body feeling like I’ve been hit by a truck. These issues can come on suddenly and go away just a few hours later. Being as open as I can with the campaign is difficult due to all the variables at play. 

Even before the weather even changed I quickly realized how crazy hard campaigning is on the people who have to organize it. Between making schedules, checking polling locations and delivering things to people it’s a fast paced environment. Then just as soon as it sped up the amount of stuff to do dries up and the breaks are slammed on. This adds a huge strain on anyone’s body but mine really takes it hard. I am used to sleeping 8-10 hours and now I’m lucky if I can squeak in 8 hours. While I love the connections and people I have met and continue to it’s rather hard.

I was extremely luck today that I got off of work at noon and was able to go home and just lay down till 7pm when I had to go pick up stuff. In the meantime it had rained though and just sucked the life blood out of me. I hope I am able to take what I am learning to not only help out my resume but also learn to further find a way to balance my health and work. I used to reject the idea that people with chronic illness did not fit into this world. However, that appears to be something that has some legs and well might be true. I am still learning the limits of my body as before I was in college before I graduated. I hope sooner rather than later my health stabilizes as this amount of strain is harsh. Election Day is approaching and all of us in the campaign are pouring everything we have into it. I hope I can one day be a person others like me look up to someone who can be used as a model but right now that seems hard to imagine.