I’m surprised that not everybody understands the seriousness of the pandemic by now. 

I mean, it’s been six months. And I know that when we first heard about the virus, nobody thought that we would be affected by it. The impression that we were all under was that it wouldn’t even reach us. But, since then, so much has happened. 

School closed, people died and are still dying, a lockdown was announced, and just as things started to get better, there was an almost immediate rise in cases and it hasn’t gotten better since.

With all this information being thrown at us, it baffles me that some people still think it’s ok to hang out with their friends every week, or throw a mass party for every social media personality, or refusing to do something as simple as covering your face. 

Now, as a person who has been asthmatic for her whole life (as is my father), I have generally weak lungs. And with two people in the family who are high risk, I find that the possible outcome is not something that I’m willing to take a chance on. It’s far too reckless for me, and it should be far too reckless for you too even if you’re not high risk.  I always wear a mask, sometimes two, a face shield, and gloves whenever I have to be in an outside environment other than my home. But, I’m not going to sit here and write about how hard it is for me because there are so many that have it so worse than I do. And from my perspective, I bet that all they want is for things to go back to normal.

So, for people that can’t afford to just leave their homes, imagine how frustrating it must be to see people not following the necessary precautions, not wearing masks, not social distancing. You know, scrolling through Snapchat or Instagram and seeing all these stories of people that think that for some reason, these rules that are set in place don’t apply to them. 

The longer people decide that it’s alright to put their lives at risk, the longer many of us have to stay inside. 

If not for yourself, at least do the rest of us a favor. If you really feel that you can’t go without leaving your house, then at least do it properly. Wear a mask, stand six feet apart, be mindful of other people’s situations. 

If you haven’t noticed already, nobody is in this alone. We’re all facing the same situation here, some of us more than others. But even still, we’re not alone. So, considering that, just be compassionate and understanding. I know this is not an ideal situation. We live our whole lives one way and suddenly everything changes. I understand that. I think we all do. But we can’t pretend like nothing changed. Trust me. It just doesn’t work like that (as much as we may want it to).

So, I think all I have to say is that we’re going to get through this. But, we need everybody’s help to do that.