With new guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, schools nationwide are dropping their mask mandates, including Akins.

Slowly we are seeing more and more students unmasking. But is Akins truly ready to unmask?

There are a lot of good things about wearing masks. Even with the mask mandate lifted I can’t help but keep my mask on. I don’t think about it anymore. It has become second nature to put it on. It didn’t seem strange to wear it anymore after the first month of the school year. I got used to wearing it. I even liked wearing my mask.

With the mask on, I felt more comfortable and confident. That’s because I didn’t have to worry about what my face looked like. Then in the colder months, it was a way to stay warm. While the summer is arriving, it protects my face from UV rays from the sun.

Then with time, I realized I could improve the way I dress with my mask. They added colors and patterns to my outfits. They could be final touches or a whole centerpiece of what I wear. However, wearing a mask is more than those reasons.

Before and now, the main reason I still wear my mask is that I want to keep myself and my family safe. To me getting my family sick is something that I never want to happen. That is because I don’t think anyone would even want to get their family sick but my conscious wouldn’t feel too good knowing that I was the reason they are sick. I would feel guilty even if I didn’t mean to infect them. Add that I would have to see them for days or weeks going through a lot of discomfort or pain. I wouldn’t want to see my family in that state.

Then If I got sick I wouldn’t want to burden my family and force them to quarantine and take care of me because I got sick. Also if I got COVID there’s a chance I could mess up my lungs for an unknown amount of time. I don’t want to go through that.

After a while, I just got use to the comfort of knowing that wearing a mask at school is just more hygienic. If I cough or sneeze at least I know it is harder for me to spread germs than doing it in my elbow. I also like being around others who are wearing masks because at least I know it is safer, knowing it’s less likely germs are on me or the things I’m touching.

Another reason that I wear masks is that it’s a massive flex that I’ve got this far into the pandemic and still haven’t got COVID. I don’t want to ruin the perfect streak. Then once this pandemic is officially over I have a small bragging right.

With that, I will continue to wear my mask until I know that the chance of me getting COVID is pretty low. It’s more about time for me as well. It seems too early to unmask yet. there still are hundreds of COVID cases having in Travis County even with it being low risk. It still seems like a lot so I don’t want to add to that for the time being I will keep masking up.