I feel both connected and disconnected from my job. When working during the day from my computer and phone, I feel very immersed in the work. However, once I leave the screen, I am back at home, 7 hours from Detroit. I’ll occasionally talk about my day with my family, but it feels difficult to have those two worlds collide because one happens through a computer screen and the other in an equally weird place because I am again living with my parents.
That being said, I am really enjoying my placement/work and understand the necessity of working from home. I thought it would be interesting to reflect on this unique experience, since the pandemic has many going through similar feelings of both isolation and connectedness.
I do wish that we could have all been staying in Detroit. I imagine it would have been nice to reflect and discuss our days of work with each other in the evenings and go over challenges and be able to face them together. I still enjoy meeting twice and a week as a group, hearing similar concerns and having the knowledge that all the other fellows are working from home and experiencing the same type of lifestyle I am. It’s comforting to know that we are still ~together~ in a sense of shared experience.
It is strange to have an entire world be built in these last 6 weeks online. I know the people I’ve been working with relatively well and enjoy talking with them, yet I have never seen them in person. That feels so odd-that these relationships are purely virtual. We had a sense of this during school when our classes went online, but we had started with in-person relationships. Like would I even recognise the people I zoom with if I saw them in person? I’d imagine I would but they would probably be taller or shorter than I expected.
I relate so much on wanting to be in Detroit working directly with your organization. I think working from home it’s very easy to sometimes feel disconnected, however, as you said, I also understand why it’s necessary to stay home. I am glad you are still enjoying your placement and hope it proves to be very rewarding!