Bindig, Ashley, Black-Hole Binary…………………………………………………………………………………83 Breckenridge, CO 2020

Breckenridge, CO, 2020

Ashley Bindig

Bereft, icy streets reach empty arms, longing for the jostling crowds that had once trekked them, pining for the laughter and the bustle that had been commonplace. The silence had fallen all at once like a sudden loss –like an unexpected, wasting illness –leaving behind shock, desolation. Two weeks. That’s what we’d been told. The town was nestled in the sheltering arms of great mountains that had once glittered with a thousand glowing lights, refracting them and shooting them back glinting like tiny stars that blanketed every slope. Once, the hills had been a haven. They’d flocked to the hills with their hopes and their laughter and they’d all fallen together –new friends and old –the cold air snapping like joyous fire in their lungs, shining out of their eyes and the red of their cheeks. Excitement was palpable in those days, and the pure joy of flight.

Two weeks. That’s what they’d said. It’s been longer. The darkest part of the year has gone by, and there was no one to comfort the hills with light and laughter in the deepest cold. Stores that had once been havens of warmth and commerce off the beaten ice are hollowed out and black. Hot cocoa and cracking fires have no place within them, because no one is there to enjoy them any longer. The few who venture are turned away by penciled signs, written a long time ago by hopeful people who had believed they’d be back soon. It couldn’t be more than a month. We’d been promised. Maybe as long as six weeks. But now, the winter’s almost over. Once the town in the mountains, under the clear winter sky, had been a place where visitors were family, united by a shared love of the snapping cold and the freedom of flight across a crust of pure snow. Now they’ve all gone away. We’d taken it for granted what the hills gave us. Under the static on the radio, unrest blooms like ice, hardening across still water. We’ve all-but forgotten what it is to be one. Ice sets in.

Frontline Hero Jaquetta Greer

The year 2020 was a big change for everyone worldwide; businesses shut down, schools closed, and gyms and salons as well everything we thought we would need for everyday living wereshut down in the blink of an eye. Covid-19 has brought a change to families that they thought they would never have toexperience, not being able to have gatherings,travel,or do family functions anymore. People have been without income for about nine months now, quarantined with their families.Practicing social distancing was something new for everyone and it’s recognized as the new normal lifestyle we must live now. Hospitals are getting highly populated with patients with Covid worldwide and it is my pleasure to be recognized as a frontline hero helping people who are very sick due to this virus or any other illness that they may have. Being recognized as a frontline hero, or in other words an essential worker, is one of my greatest achievements of what I do. Getting up five days throughout the week to put myself at risk to help someone else makes me feel good about doing what healthcare workers do. While other things have been closed or shut down, my job Millard Fillmore Suburban is one place that stays open 24/7. As a frontline hero, it is our job to provide a routine essential service in the medical practice. Giving direct care to a patient just by greeting them when walking in their rooms, to administering medicine, or even transporting them in their beds to different units like ICU, or the NICU or even sometimes up to labor and delivery, or just helping the get cleaned up. I get asked questions all the time like how can you do this and you have small children at home, and my answer is every time I love what I do but I always use the proper PPE. When going into a room that is labeled contact and droplet precautions,we always dress down in the proper PPE. We have surgical masks, blue gowns, hairnets, goggles and N-95 masks. Being a frontline worker can take a lot out of you and be a lot to deal with due to the fact of you’re exposing yourself to everyday germs of this virus, but when using proper handwashing and PPE and getting tested, you will always be up to date on things and won't have to worry so much about if you're taking anything back to your home or family. All employees that are scheduled to come in must walk through the front entrance, get screened every day, and must wear a surgical mask throughout the entire shift. Just for extra protection, I wear my N-95 under my surgical masks. Every day I am more scared of the rates getting higher because we are running out of room for patients in the hospital. Being a frontline worker was one of the best career paths I could've chosen; not only can I help my family, but I can help others and feel good about doing it. To know that someone else is trusting me with theirlife makes me happy.