As A Gen Z Government Worker, I Had To Visit A Food Bank Because Of The Shutdown

Being a furloughed employee is a unique kind of limbo, because it’s not a vacation. Kerksick feels like she is “being held on a leash right now” because she is technically still employed and can be recalled back to work any day, which limits her travel. During her days, she trains for a 5K race, crochets stuffed animals and watches true crime documentaries to destress. 

Kerksick said the biggest misconception she thinks people have about the shutdown is around the impact it’s having on workers like herself: “We do have savings, but that can only take you so far.”

She wants everyone to reflect on how hard it would be for you and your family to miss two paychecks in a row. “It’s easy to point out, ‘Oh, so you don’t have a savings or you can’t go without this?’ But it’s hard,” she said. 

“You’re from the outside looking in. And if you were to put yourselves in our shoes, what would you do?” Kerksick continued. “You might look at the people in the food bank line and think, ‘Oh, they’re just accepting a handout when you don’t know our situations at all.’”

“At least have some empathy for us as just human beings that are trying to get by, despite politics or whatever you believe about the government and how useful we all are,” Kerksick said. “At the end of the day, we’re people that are missing our paychecks.”

Cost of Living is a new series that reveals true stories of how people make money, lose money, and deal with all the pressures of our current economic climate. Have a candid story about how you switched careers, spent a windfall, combined finances with a partner, or survived a mass layoff? Or maybe you’ve been personally impacted by the current administration’s changes? We want to hear it all. Email monica.torres@huffpost.com.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.