After the start of the pandemic, I can barely remember a time when I wasn’t checking the news every day, putting on a mask in the morning and not taking it off until late at night, or even just worrying if someone was coughing near me. Life is moving both slower and faster than anyone expected. My last two birthdays have happened during a pandemic and who I was two years ago wouldn’t believe who I am today.

Only a handful of historical events have incentivized a universal feeling so strong that everyone in the world seems to share it, but COVID-19 is one of these relatively universal experiences. At some point or another in the past two years, most people have felt confused, scared or skeptical. Some moving on, others haunted by the nostalgia for life before the pandemic.

However, time has gone by and the world has adapted to what one too many politicians call “unprecedented times.” As state mask mandates are lifted and Syracuse University downgrades to lower masking levels, I am left to dwell on when we collectively decided to move on and how I should act or feel about it.

The pandemic that started as a health problem has become a social issue with labels that have incriminating connotations depending on political views. These days, you can either be an “anti-masker” or be “politically correct” and wear your mask when enough people are around. It feels like wearing a mask has become necessary decorum for being part of society, yet it is all a gray area.

Knowing the right thing to do doesn’t get any clearer with the ambiguity of campus guidelines and state mandates. SU’s “BLUE” masking level requires masks for academic instruction but recommends them in social settings, so how do we decide when to take this recommendation?

Walking around a residence hall these days demonstrates that everyone has their own take on it, which kind of defies the purpose of a “community” guideline. Some students feel more comfortable taking the recommendation and wearing their masks everywhere. Others are just happy to walk around their residence halls and see their friends’ faces again. Freshman Reece Peltzman feels confused by the new masking guidelines and feels judged in certain situations.

“I feel like when I am by myself (outside) that’s when I wear it, but when I am in group settings, it’s like that social pressure of ‘if everybody else isn’t doing it, then you don’t have to do it,’” Peltzman said. “Nowadays, COVID is becoming more of an afterthought for some people.”

It is precisely that feeling of an “afterthought” that makes this pandemic all the more of a confusing social issue. While national cases are steadily decreasing and some people are already thinking “post-pandemic,” others are still dealing with grief and struggling every day not to get their loved ones sick. That is when the guilt kicks in.

It feels wrong to ignore the devastating grief that overtook some people in the last two years. At some point, the conversation became so politicized that the public and the media forgot that people are not just statistics — there was someone behind each number who lost their lives and whose family members or friends are probably still hurting. Freshman Abby Long said she has had mixed feelings through the pandemic.

“My family experienced more second-hand guilt: we were thankful enough to be safe, but our lives were also miserable seeing the world falling apart around us,” Long said. “Watching it and not experiencing it is kind of the guilt that we faced.”

At the same time, it is fair to feel hopeful when things start to move on and regulations begin to loosen up. That is why, as students, there is this dissonance between wanting to not wear a mask and genuinely feeling guilty because there might be people around who are still at risk. Freshman Morgan Meddings shared her frustration with deciding to wear a mask in social situations based on the recommendations SU has given her.

“I just feel like there is a lack of consistency and a lack of communication, and that makes it harder,” Meddings said. “That’s part of the reason why students are so over it because you are just being told different things from every single angle and don’t know who to listen to.”

Following the vague guidelines from the administration, SU community members should still feel confident enough to wear a mask if they feel the need to or not wear a mask if they don’t wish to. Our community needs to create a guilt-free environment when it comes to the pandemic. Afterall, most of our student population is fully vaccinated, already making our campus one of the safest.

Deciding when the pandemic ends and when to move on is complex and out of our hands. We cannot overlook the pains we have been through and have seen others go through, but we cannot keep dwelling on the guilt-inducing social construct we created around this issue. In the meantime, all we need to do is remain sympathetic to everyone’s choices regarding masking and hope for a future without masks at all.

Karla Perez is a freshman magazine, news and digital journalism major. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached at ksperezd@syr.edu.

Published on March 1, 2022 at 10:19 pm