Dear college student,

I know how you feel.

We've been robbed of our humanity since March. Robbed of our friends, our families, our jobs, and pretty much most of our modern lives. The country reopened, and while we all knew it wasn't exactly safe to do so, we tried to resume our normal lives as best as we could.

I know I did. There would be times when I was smiling, laughing, actually having fun, feeling alive again, and I would look around and think to myself, "Wow, it's almost like there's not a global pandemic killing hundreds of thousands happening around me right now."

And I paid for that.

It's been about nine weeks since I've had COVID-19, but it feels like a lifetime.

Time really has no meaning to me anymore. COVID-19 doesn't go away after you've had it. You get it, you survive, no big deal. You just want it to be over with. Well, it's so far from over. I think deep down we all know that we should be staying home still. Not be seeing so many people. It's getting even harder now that some of us are able to go back to our colleges and our college towns.

What makes me the angriest, though, are the parties.

I don't mean the 10, maybe 11 people you have sitting in your house watching a movie or doing whatever. I mean the full-on frat bashes where you're shoulder to shoulder with complete strangers and no masks. The huge crowds of people at the bars with their facemasks down. We shouldn't even all be here in the first place, but what you're doing with your own actions is going to get all of us sent back home again.

Your actions have consequences for everyone, not just you.

Maybe you pay rent and can stay around your school. Cool. But what about the locals? The ones that are way more susceptible to getting the virus? And their families? And their families? If you haven't had the pandemic touch your life just yet, you truly don't understand the consequences that others will face because of your actions. Death is one of those consequences.

All I have to say is that if you're participating in these bad behaviors, the pandemic will be in your life very soon. And I know that for a fact.

Please, stay at home with your friends. Expose yourselves only to your very close friends, and the same ones over and over. Have smaller gatherings. They're still not great, but if you and everyone involved know, understand, and are OK with the risks, that is completely up to you. But please think long-term here. Life will eventually get back to normal, I promise. But it's the people going out now that are making this go on even longer.

Please think about this next time you're going out. And if you do, for the love of God, please, wear a mask.

COVID-19 didn't stop for me after I got it. And it won't for you either.

Sincerely,

A college student who had COVID-19