Courtesy of Bri Davis

Preparing to go to her job as a bagger at Schnucks, Davis puts on her face mask and gloves. While most students are staying home, Davis goes out each day as an essential worker.

I step outside of my house with my mask on, ready to go. Ready to go to the same place I’ve been going since quarantine started: Schnucks. It was a job that I applied for before this all started. I had been working at the St. Louis Zoo since freshman year, and wanted to switch it up my last two years of high school. It all happened so quickly. I remember applying for multiple jobs they had available, not thinking they would call me only three days later…

The funny thing is, I wasn’t supposed to start working until after spring break, because I had a historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) trip planned. But, that got canceled due to the mounting fears of the Coronavirus.  

So, I called my manager and told her I could work, which honestly wasn’t the worst decision I could’ve made.

My first day was so chaotic, I almost didn’t get a break. As Coronavirus fears increased, so did my personal ones, as I have asthma and am at a higher risk. People were at grocery stores, buying $300 worth of groceries or more. Baggers have multiple jobs, many that I had to learn in just 10 minutes. It was like I wasn’t even a new person working there. I kept getting compliments from my co-workers––they couldn’t believe how well I was doing as a bagger for my first day. I thought to myself, “It’s bagging groceries…is it supposed to be hard?” As time went on, it was just repetition but it was something I didn’t mind. It was the definition of an easy job.

Working at a grocery store in the midst of this has caused me to see and learn a lot of things. I saw a woman steal a whole cart full of groceries and by the time she left with her partner, I had gotten the license plate and was scared out of my mind. I had a person give me a look all because I was choking due to an itch I had in my throat and couldn’t leave to go get water. I heard a woman have a breakdown in an aisle where there was no toilet paper or paper towels, screaming about how she couldn’t take it anymore. I saw a man in a full-body suit with a gas mask, standing a good distance away from the register until it was time to pay. I had people refuse to let me bag their groceries, insisting they can do it themselves. 

I never thought that I would be an essential worker in the middle of a pandemic, especially because I am high risk. But, as I continue to work, put on my mask and my gloves, wash my hands and talk through plexiglass,  I always keep one thing in the back of my head: I’m helping. I’m helping make people’s lives a little less painful through this. I am giving them a smile and maybe even a joke while I bag their groceries. I am helping older people to their cars and putting their groceries in. Everything that I do as a bagger gives me strength to keep going, to keep coming to work and to keep putting myself at risk. 

At the end of the day, yes, everyone is in a panic, spending all their money and stuck at home, losing their minds. But at least I can help someone’s day, even just for five minutes, corona-free.