I'm really glad that I get to move back for the semester, but I can't exactly say that I'm excited to figure out what college life is going to be with coronavirus still popular in the United States.
In the state of Illinois, there are currently two hundred and eleven thousand cases of COVID-19, and let's not pretend that the number isn't going to grow at all. With our beloved president doing... the wrong things, to put it shortly, America is probably going through some of the most unnecessary snags because of the virus. I will be completely honest; I haven't been staying the most up-to-date in COVID-related news (as someone with anxiety, and their own set of coming-of-age problems, it's a bit difficult to do so), but apparently it's estimated that the USA won't go back to a sort of normalcy for at least two years due to how badly we've handled the outbreak?
How swell.
Despite the drastic need for social distancing, though, I was relieved to see that I was allowed to move back on campus. Being at home was great, but I miss my friends, my dorm,and the semi-independent living. Granted, I probably won't be seeing my friends as much due to our online classes, but it's nice to know that we might be able to see each other in the same buildings or *occasionally* have a nice, socially-distanced lunch. What I'm not excited for, though? I already know that some of my friends aren't going to take the safety precautions as seriously as others. I've already seen things online about people being "the bad guy" out of their group of friends for reminding people that yes, we are in the middle of a pandemic. I can already hear myself going, "No, I don't want to hang out right now, I don't care how badly you want to go out. I'm not going to risk catching COVID because you're too antsy to settle for walking through the park."
It's already enough that I've witnessed some of my friends proudly going out, not wearing masks and socializing it the hell up; it makes me livid. I even got repulsed this morning when I went to get a latte and I saw that outside of the Starbucks, there was not one person wearing a mask! Y'all are pushing it. And before you get all crazy on me, yes, I do know that it's extremely hard to stay put for so long, and yes, I understand that not everyone has coronavirus. The problem is, no one seems to care about who does and who doesn't, and when you go out, you don't take any safety precautions whatsoever. That's what makes me so angry. You know when I was in a distanced line for the elevator, there was someone behind me who 1) Wasn't wearing a mask and 2) Declared loudly "Oh, I don't care about social distancing!" before cutting me and getting into a crowded elevator? Did I mention that I was at the hospital for a doctor's appointment?!
I can cut a small percentage of those people some slack, though; I didn't wear a mask when I hung out with one of my friends at the park last week, even though I had no clue where they'd been previously. And, while most of the time wearing a mask is no problem for me, it does get kind of stuffy when you're travelling with the heat outside. But I'm not going to completely excuse them, solely for the fact that it's advised that you only go out when it's absolutely necessary. All I can say is that on campus, I'm going to be hermit-ing it up in my dorm for as long as possible. I'll have time to do more things for myself, like rest, exercise, and write about things other than my personal opinion (lol). Plus, with weekly COVID tests, I'll at least be able to react quickly when something bad happens.
Let's just pray that all goes smoothly during the first few months.