Like most of us this year, Shayla Lamb is having to make a few life adjustments. She was laid off from her job as an ironworker thanks to COVID-19, and now, she says, “I’m mostly just doing my own thing.”
And even though she’d like to get back to work – she was recently offered a short-term job through her union – Shayla has other things to consider. Like her seven-year-old daughter, Coraline, whose school situation (also thanks to the pandemic) is somewhat…fluid.
But the remarkable thing about Shayla is that it’s as if her entire life has been spent in preparation for the kind of uncertainty we’re all facing. Fiercely independent, she started working at 14 – a paper route – and hasn’t looked back. At one time she held down four jobs at once while she taught herself how to manage her finances. So when Shayla learned she’d been laid off last spring, she was ready. “I’d set aside enough for Coraline and me to live for a year and still be fine.”
And also to work on another one of her pursuits: metal sculpture – a skill she picked up in Aims Community College’s creative welding class.
