The story of you: Tell us how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed your life

Your team at the Missoula Current has been working at warp speed the past seven days to keep pace with local news on COVID-19, and the stories keep coming.

Most of our reports have focused on our courageous public health officials as they race to slow the spread of the virus, or bipartisan acts of legislation intended to offer relief. We've interviewed businesses and nonprofits, community leaders and transportation officials.

It's all intended to keep our readers informed.

But there's one thing that's missing from the coverage, and that's the story of you. As Missoula hunkers down, as businesses close and life's routines are disrupted, we've all found ourselves with ample time to reflect on the situation.

Now, we'd like you to share your thoughts on the pandemic and how you have been impacted.

If the news is truly the first draft of history, we want you to be a part in shaping it. That's more important now than it has ever been. So we're asking our readers to submit their own stories telling how they've been effected by events.

What are your thoughts and fears? Have you lost your job? Are you fearful of losing your business? What are you and your family doing to cope with the constant changes? What do you want the future to know about today?

We'll compile these stories and post them at Missoula Current. Over time, we believe, they'll paint a picture of life today and help us all understand the true and diverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Please keep your stories to 500 words and include a picture of yourself (we don't want to use the microscopic photo of the virus more than we have to). We will not edit the stories but rather post them as we receive them. We will also include the stories each morning in Montana Today.

Please send stories in Word format to info@missoulacurrent.com. As always, thank you for your support and take care.