“A lot of us in this community are not college degree people. We work in the service industry. I worked with horses and polo players for years. Now I’m cleaning condos. When things get tight, the service industry suffers. People cut their own grass. They don’t need us to clean their house or condo. I judge the economy by the polo world because those are some of your top bracket, wealthy people who do that sport. They have money and don’t mind spending it. Under the Obama administration, they started getting tight with their money and it got hard for us. They hired illegals because they were able to house them and pay them less.

When Trump came into office, it was here’s your list of jobs. What would you like to do? I made $1500 a week last year cleaning condos. After the quarantine, it dropped to $500 a week. It got tight for a moment. They stimulus checks went out and work picked back up. Now it is $200 a week if I am lucky. I get work where I can.

We are struggling and I have irons in the fire looking for alternative work. People like us don’t have anything to fall back on if they shut the country down. We don’t have savings. My husband and I have been smart with paying off our home and land and our monthly mortgage payment is small. I don’t want to sell what I have worked so hard for all my life. You have to let us work. I know we have Coronavirus and we need to think about everyone else, and I do. But at the same time, we are down to one loaf of bread and a package of sandwich meat. The power bill and the car note are due.

I am 43. I know people say relearn this and relearn that. But it’s easier said than done. People don’t want to hire someone my age who doesn’t know how to run a cash register. Why would they pay me while they teach me when they can hire a younger person who has worked several cashier jobs? I don’t think it’s prejudiced or anything. It is just efficiency.

This election can go one way or another. If it goes one way, I already know from what has been proven that me and my family will have good jobs. If it goes the other way, I don’t know what I’m going to do. Thank goodness we’re good at camping.

My mom always told me when it came to voting, nobody is the perfect candidate. You have to pick that one thing that’s most important to you. For years it was abortion. But this year, I don’t know if I have money for milk this week.

I learned things when I’m around the wealthy in polo that I wouldn’t learn in my own circle. There are things I learn in my own circle that I take back to the wealthy. They’re not bad people, but when you live in a certain bracket, you forget what it’s like to worry about milk money on Friday. Each of us needs to see the whole circle, not half the circle, and realize that there are people around you worried that they can’t afford milk this week.”