So recently I’m reheating food in the microwave at the staff room, and 4 teachers are having a whine. Students and staff are taking a lot of time off these days. “Don’t they know that COVID was over”, “we’ve all had it and we’re fine” said white people with well to do parents. Maybe they didn’t see me come in or they forget that I’m seeing long COVID every day when I come home. I just gave it a second stare before continuing on, I don’t need to fuck with my livelihood. My meals are eaten outside, away from liberals, with a book; and my life is way better for it. Sometimes I chat with the maintenance or cleaning people and the convos are way more genuine, without all the weird bragging that middle class people like to do.
I swear to God, just immediately they dropped the names of 3 other young teachers who have new chronic health conditions. One has persistent low energy, another brand new allergies and asthma, yet another has to go back and live with her parents as she can’t cope with work and illness. Everyone’s stressing about using up all their sick time.
The less I care about the opinions of comfortable white liberals, the happier I am. Amen.
And people often forget the sheer amount of stress inflicted on people just existing being poor or marginalized.
And the amount of unpaid labor many women are typically expected to do at home, sick or not. My MIL had cancer, and her partner didn’t once clean their bathroom during her sickness. It took my partner noticing and doing it themself.