I’ll never forget Friday, March 13, 2020.
I remember leaving high school in the early afternoon and going to the grocery store to panic buy food and other essentials (yes, I was a dope). I was not on campus like most students were at the time when we were informed that there would be an additional week of spring break due to coronavirus.
All we knew was that we were getting off school, but that did not feel comforting by any stretch. Everyone was being conditioned for terror due to the unknown nature of the illness and the impending government restrictions in California.
I would not walk into a physical classroom again until August 2020, when in-person instruction was granted for two days a week. Desks were distanced, and wearing a mask was required both indoors and outdoors. Needless to say, two classes of high school seniors were robbed of classic experiences, but most pushed through nonetheless.
One of the reasons I chose to attend Arizona State University for college was because it did not fully go online like many K-12 schools and universities did and some continue to do. Since I’ve arrived in the fall, the university has required masks in the classroom and a few other locations. There was also the dreaded “Daily Health Check” that was in place from January to March, which was a nonsense health questionnaire that was never taken seriously.
When compared to other schools, these measures were irritating but not devastating. You learn to take what you can get in the sick game of bureaucratic incompetence in higher education.
And on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, nearly two years after all hell broke loose, I’ll finally be able to walk into a classroom again without wearing a mask.
This is long overdue, and people should never forget that.
While it’s certainly nice to see people’s faces in all settings, this is not a celebratory moment. Whether it’s your office or university that lifted mask requirements, never forget that a power-hungry bureaucrat or a serial appeaser of left-wing hysteria forced you to comply with their rules for years.
Related: Democrats Will Try to Retcon Their Response to COVID-19 With a New Narrative–Don’t Let Them
Once again, irritating but not devastating… until you think about children in K-12 schools. Many are still required to wear masks, even though small children need to develop proper speech and learn social cues. They do not understand body autonomy or the idea of sticking it to “the man,” so the voice of opposition has come from the parents who have courageously decided to speak up.
Those who are students know that communicating with masks is difficult, and I can only imagine how tough it is for those who are much younger than I am.
Regardless, this should never be allowed to happen again. Children and adolescents have been taking the brunt of coronavirus insanity despite being at a much lower risk for serious illness from COVID.
We should never forget what they did to us.
