“I have a lot more anger and a lot more hopelessness.”

Jess Plotkin is a senior at UWM. She’s a classics major with minors in biology and chemistry, and she’s a pre-med student. She talks with Brianna Schubert about how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted her mental health.

(Brianna Schubert) How did the last year and a half go for you?

(Jess Plotkin) It’s been very challenging, and a lot of the time it felt like I’m just running in place. It’s been the most difficult years of academia that I’ve ever had. The burnout has been excessive.

(Schubert) Who or what has failed you? And how so?

(Plotkin) I’ve had several instructors who have essentially abandoned their classes, especially the first two semesters of the pandemic. I had an organic chemistry professor who was not especially attentive when we were in person, and when we went virtual, he just stopped. I did not hear from him again for the rest of the semester. Then, the next semester I had a physics professor who never showed up, I guess. It made me not want to pursue the hard sciences. And going into the pandemic I was a biochemistry major with a classics minor. I decided that it wasn’t worth my time and effort to get that biochemistry major.

(Schubert) How has life been outside of school?

(Plotkin) A lot of my fiancé’s family are of the anti-mask and anti-vax persuasion. So, we haven’t seen a lot of them. My family does follow vaccine and mask recommendations, but we haven’t seen as much of them because there are some chronic illnesses that we have to work around. It’s been hard not having those big family gatherings and not being able to see everyone. I guess, some other people who have failed me are those people who refuse to wear masks and get vaccinated and follow the CDC recommendations because they are the ones who are prolonging this pandemic and making it so that I can’t see my cousins and my great aunt, who is in her mid-90s, and spend time with those family members.

(Schubert) How has that impacted your mental health?

(Plotkin) Very poorly. Very negatively. I have a lot more anger than I did at the start of the pandemic and a lot more hopelessness. Just this sense that no matter how hard I work and no matter how hard others around me work to make this world better, we’re fighting an uphill battle with these immense weights on us. I’ve learned that sometimes the world sucks and hoping for things to be better doesn’t do a lot. You have to actively work and do your damned best to get people to work with you but know that in all reality most of them won’t.

(Schubert) Where do you find hope then?

(Plotkin) There are so many other people like me. There are enough other people who also are starting to burn with that anger and that need to make the world into something better that I do have hope that our generation is going to make positive changes in the world, but right now we have some enormous obstacles to overcome. Just wear your mask. Get vaccinated. Look out for your fellow humans. Make those small sacrifices so that we can have a better tomorrow.