Krista Lopez is one of the 800,000 federal employees’ children who is currently dealing with the effects of the shutdown.

She is a sophomore VMT dance student.

She described her feelings as concern and confusion when she first heard about the government shutdown on December 22, 2018. Her parents were both worried about the shutdown. Regardless of this, they advised her not to worry. She wasn’t as concerned at the beginning as she is now. Like countless others, she did not anticipate the length of this shutdown.

“I wasn’t expecting the shutdown to last 27 days,” she said in a written interview.

Her life has not been deeply affected like many of the federal employees’ children, she said. Krista expresses great worry for her parent’s taxes and other financial dilemmas.

“Besides worrying about taxes and stuff I shouldn’t worry about,” she said in a written interview.

Along with the many other federal employee families, Krista has fears caused by the shutdown. She worries about her mother that endures the stress of work and is still not getting paid. She also worries about the financial situations her parents have to deal with such as house bills and taxes.

“I worry about the bills and taxes because even though my mom isn’t getting paid, time is money and they need to be paid regardless,” she said.

Like many families affected by the shutdown, Krista’s family has to cut costs and find ways to save money. They have lasted through these times by eating at home and not going out as much as they used to. They stopped spending money on fast food such as Whataburger, Chick-fil-a, Peter Pipers, and snacks.

“Anything that isn’t homemade or taco shells and cheese,” she wrote.

They restrict themselves from purchasing unneeded items when shopping for groceries.

“We also try to limit items when grocery shopping and only getting essentials, very basic essentials,” she said.

Part of the struggles of the shutdown is the children not being able to do much about it. Krista goes through this same struggle.

“There isn’t much I could do to help out,” she said.

To help out with what she can she would have her younger brother limit what he would snack on to make their food last.

“I would make my brother ration whatever we had in the pantry,” she said.

Personally, this shutdown opened Krista’s eyes to the reality in her own country.

“It just made me more aware that everything is out of our control and anything can change in a matter of minutes,” she said.

Krista isn’t certain on when the government shutdown will end because its been the longest one in history.

“Honestly, at this point I don’t know how long this will last,” she said.

She finds this shutdown is a result of unnecessary fights in Washington D.C.

“It’s a petty fight between people in a higher position and unfortunately, 800,000 federal workers and their families have to suffer,” she said.

Due to the lengthy shutdown, Krista’s perspective on the government has changed. She said sees the government in a negative light ever since Trump was elected president. She knew that the government under Trump’s leadership, would go down in history negatively.

“This shutdown has greatly affected families and has caused workers to feel anxious, undetermined, and yearning for the next paycheck that they aren’t guaranteed,” she said.

Krista also feels that continuous news coverage on this government shutdown makes her feel worse than better. It makes her feel uneasy about the situation and its constant on-air attention. She believes the news is showing us that our president is everywhere else instead of here trying to fix the problem.

“The constant news coverage makes me feel anxious because it’s being reported on 24/7 on a multitude of platforms and at this point it’s the same thing,” Krista said.

When asked what she would like to add, she said she would like everyone to consider Beto O’Rourke for presidency.

“Vote for Beto 2020,” she said.

This story was originally published on The Magnet Tribune on January 25, 2019.