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     If I were to fully realize this experiment I would include a brief introduction and then the email. Each point on the list is its own section/little essay that would be a couple of pages long. It correlates to a different day or moment during this chaotic period and they are listed in chronological order. Because it is a map, I just included some of the events or details from that day that I could expand upon to create a full draft. The last section would be me reflecting on my thoughts of the situation currently and leaving readers with some questions and a little bit of the jarred confusion I still currently feel.

 

Section 1: Introduction

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Provide a brief introduction, explain who I am, what I do, who the residents are at work, the houses I work at, etc.

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Section 2: Artifact of Origin

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Provide artifact of origin (the email I wrote with my coworker).

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Section 3: The Body of the Writing (each section is its own entry)​​

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The Day I Wrote the Email:

I hear about a shift premium at House 2, learn that there are positive residents there, my coworker writes their email and I spend a long time editing for clarity. I begin to distance myself from coworkers and residents at House 1 because I didn't know who was exposed. I hear about residents at House 1 being tested the day before and that there are no results yet. I was a little uneasy, but not quite concerned. 

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Learning of Positive Residents at House 1:​

The week after the email was written, I hear of positive results at House 1. My Chicago trip was cancelled so I had nothing to look forward to. This begins with my manager calling me while sick with COVID. It is atypical for her to call me, so I go up from the basement of the Union where I was writing and hear that two residents are positive. Both are symptomatic and were positive while I was working there the previous weekend. I need to get tested. I got calls and emails that staff I worked with were getting sick. I had to do the math and think the likelihood of me exposing friends and family is slim. I say that I won't work in a positive house and that it isn't fair to my family. I call my family and friends to notify them. It isn't cool to give your friends COVID-19. 

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Later that Evening, Alone at my Apartment:

I dyed my hair pink and COVID-19 was the catalyst. I had to unpack everything I had prepared to go home. My friends told me my hair looked bad. I listened to bad music and pouted. I was still shocked.

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Call With Family Friend at the Company:

​I tried to figure out how to get out of working with COVID-19 positive people. They still see me as a kid, and don't want me going in there. My potential options are to quit, offer to work at non-covid house, go casual, take 2 weeks off. My manager says no. Work with covid or quit. This segues into a PPE conversation.

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I Go Home after Testing Negative:

I talk to my dad and he encouraged quitting because I didn't need the job. It was supposed to be a summer learning experience that got extended during the pandemic. But do I want to quit if it gets hard? I have the luxury to quit but none of my other coworkers do.

 

Haze of Picking Up Shifts

Had picked up extra shifts to get money for my trip with friends that had been cancelled at that point. I worked at 4 different houses during the week I worked at positive House 1. How is the COVID-19 spread through the company? Definitely like this. The turnaround time for testing is too slow, people go home during a shift when they spike a temperature. People work up until they are sick or until their test comes back positive. I’m wearing the same N95 at ALL houses, with disposable surgical mask on top while no one else seems to care. Different places have all sorts of different infection protocols, confusing.

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Work at COVID-19 Positive House 1

 My sources say all negative? But no one else has heard this from within the house and this is a few days late. What the heck kind of communication lag is this? That Weds work at Carter while presumably all positive, Clean to control, nothing else you can do but clean the house for hours on end, control how you don and doff PPE, watch videos and discuss with parents for safety. Watching news coverage freaked me out so much I felt like I was walking into a war zone, but it was actually fine. People are still people even when sick. Ended up making door decorations for one client’s birthday. Clean some more.

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Reflection on What Happened:

​Reflection post-vaccination and how I am feeling now. I will express my ongoing frustration, communication issues, vaccination issues, etc. I'll try to convey how difficult it is to reckon with the situation because it was done so fast. Had they been able to hold on for about 2 months for vaccination, it could’ve prevented disease and death. My coworkers couldn’t take time off, so they had to use paid time off and they were not given extra sick days or hazard pay until the test came back positive, not given correct PPE until confirmed positives, but the testing lag caused there to be a full week of exposure. I fortunately didn’t need the job, but others did, I had connections to get more information. Communication was especially bad during the pandemic.