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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.

Quite honestly, COVID-19 has moved to my mental back burner. With all that is happening locally and globally–easing restrictions on campus, a national decline in cases, large-scale crises like Putin’s invasion of Ukraine– hearing the word “covid” has started to leave me with an apathetic expression. Although I have heard utterances of another simmering variant, it seems like a given at this point–covid will continue to wax and wane, cases will drop and spike, and we will all just have to carry on and adapt as we have been the past two years. Ironically, I am sick right now with some other virus; you forget that other viruses besides COVID-19 still exist. Even more ironically, I fully departed from wearing masks indoors this past week, which may explain my newfound sickness. Do I blame the sudden absence of indoor mask regulations or plain bad luck? Part of me wants to retreat back to mask wearing as I sit here with a burning sore throat, but I have to keep reminding my hypochondriac self that masks are not the norm and not a safety blanket, either. Additionally, spending the end of my spring break in bed has been a major let-down, especially with warmer temperatures and sunnier skies, but I am trying to remain grateful for suffering at home in my bed instead of a noisy dorm with a roommate I do not want to get sick. I also did have the chance to get outside (and inside, apparently around floating viruses) pre-illness and managed to take some photos of one of my favorite spots from home: the Lake Michigan beachfront. I am immensely looking forward to more time at the beach in the near future, to recovering from this virus, and to the final stretch of a semester that seems to be rising out of covid’s ashes.