The COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on all of us and while the pandemic has been a nightmare, 2020 can’t be regarded as being entirely terrible. For some people like UPS Store manager Amber Morales, 2020 saw new beginnings and opportunities at a time where hope seemed lost. New apartment, promotion at her job and re-enrolling in college is how Amber would sum up her 2020. Amber finds herself juggling work, marriage and school as she is enrolled part-time at Bronx Community College, but she says she wouldn’t have it any other way. While in the midst of a global pandemic Amber is grateful that her and her wife have not contracted the coronavirus and managed to both stay employed. 

The UPS Store, a UPS franchise location, located on East 65^th Street in the Upper East Side of Manhattan has been Morales’s home since the beginning of the pandemic. She worked at the store on 51^st Street and Lexington Avenue for a little over three years but was moved over upon her promotion. She has seen the store sales increase drastically since the pandemic started. Speaking on this, Morales said “While other stores were closing or losing money, we were making the most money we’ve made in years.” The UPS Store never closed during the pandemic, it limited hours and had safety protocols put in place. Morales said she has never felt unsafe working during the pandemic, “We maintain social distance with markings on the floor, no more than two people allowed in at once, and of course masks and I disinfect all surfaces every chance I get.” While she never felt unsafe at work, she was not always happy, “During the first three months of the pandemic, I was working nine hours straight and alone. Only the managers were allowed to work so I ran the store alone every day and it became very overwhelming. I was grateful for my job but it began to take a toll.” 

Amber reached out to her manager during the early summer months and was granted a few weeks off to relax and spend time at home with her newlywed wife, having married in 2019 a few months before the beginning of the pandemic. It was during these few weeks that Morales sat down and thought about what she truly wanted to get out of life. “My life has been hard. My family wasn’t always accepting of me being gay and aren’t fully on board yet. I moved from house to house when I was younger so it’s nice that I finally found a home. But it was weird because I wanted more. I felt incomplete. And that’s when I knew I needed to go back to school in order to feel fulfilled and move on from my current life to the life I want.” Majoring in business, Morales hopes that her degree and managerial experience can land her a corporate job “making the big bucks” as she says. 

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