I may or may not be a little paranoid over getting sick. Okay, okay. Maybe, I’m more than a little paranoid over getting sick. Even before COVID-19, I carried hand sanitizer around with me everywhere and I tried my best not to come into physical contact with anyone. I did everything I could to avoid sick people. Even when my family got even something as insignificant as sniffles, I would wear a surgical mask any time I was around them. I can remember following my little sister around when she had the flu and obsessively sanitizing anything she got close to.
As you can imagine, I have been a little overboard with following CDC guidelines for staying safe, and a little overboard on reminding everyone around me of those same safety precautions. So, when I am on campus, I find it infuriating that people still do everything they can to get around following safety precautions. How can someone not be doing everything they can to keep themselves safe during a pandemic?
When I go into work in the morning and see people sitting in the University Center with their masks hanging from one ear or sitting on the table next to their laptop. Then, when I am getting ready to leave and I see the same people, still not wearing their masks hours later. I get stressed out since I’m only taking off my mask to take a quick drink of water in an empty room. I have no idea how someone can sit in the middle of the University Center in a group of more than six people, all of which are not wearing masks, for hours and not have a panic attack. The mere thought of that makes me want to curl up into a ball and cry.
Then, there is the fact that I freak out any time I feel even remotely sick, even worse back when the pandemic started last year, which was also the time that just so happened to be the start of my allergy season, and just a year later it was time for hay fever. So, anytime I cough, my first thought is “Uh oh, is this COVID?”
Even if the CDC and the World Health Organization came out today and said that the pandemic is over and there is no need to wear masks anymore, I’d probably keep wearing a mask for a few months. I might be more than a little bit paranoid, but at least I’ll be safe.
