If you know me personally, then you probably have a pretty good idea of how I feel about the mask mandates and covid vaccinations, but this article isn’t to push my views on you because I’m sure your mind is already made up one way or another.

     So I’m not going to point out that countless studies have been done that prove masks slow the spread of the coronavirus. Nor am I going to remind you that just because you are healthy and might be fine if you contract the virus, that doesn’t mean all of your peers can survive it. Or that many people experience a delay between contracting the virus and showing symptoms, or never get symptoms at all, so even if you feel fine you could spread it pretty easily if you decline to wear a mask.

      I’m also not going to mention that literally no negative side effects have been found from wearing masks, so even if on some off chance we find out down the line they weren’t effective, you have nothing to lose by complying.

     I’m not even going to urge you to get vaccinated because it’s fully FDA approved, only around 1 in 5,000 vaccinated people contract the virus, and only about 5 in 100,000 vaccinated people are hospitalized from the virus. Plus it helps you avoid getting sent home for contact tracing so it’d probably be in your best interest anyway– but I’m not going that point that out.

      But what I will say, is that we all endured a collective trauma. We lost football games, dances, musicals, parties, clubs, field trips, and so many other memories; and as valid as it is to grieve those lost experiences, we’re being given a chance to have it all back. I’m a senior, and so are many of you—we don’t have unlimited time to make teen memories. If there’s something we can all agree on, it’s that we want to remain in person.

      As hard of a pill it is to swallow, salvaging the rest of our teenage years comes at a price. Wear a mask over your nose if you’re inside, get vaccinated if you can, and if you’re told to quarantine for two weeks then just stay at home. Even if you can’t do it out of the kindness of your heart, at the very least do it to try and avoid another lockdown. I don’t know about you, but if wearing a piece of fabric over my nose is going to raise the chances of us getting a semi-normal school year, then you won’t be hearing any complaints from me.