Dear Instagram Girl

Hi there. I first met you over a year ago, you came into my third hour, and pretty soon you had acclimated into the classroom environment. A few weeks after you joined our class, you followed me on Instagram. Instinctively, I followed back. I never thought much about that decision until last week. I was scrolling through Instagram mindlessly, as I always do, then I saw your post. I almost didn’t notice anything at first. It was a nice picture. I liked your dress and I thought that you and your date had coordinated your outfits quite well. Then I began to understand the reality of this photo. COVID. We are a year into a global health emergency, with over 2 million people dead. A quarter of those deaths here, in the United States, and there you were. At Winter Formal. You were beaming, standing in traditional prom-esque poses with your friends. No masks. Just pure happiness on all of your faces. Almost like you and your friends didn’t even know that there was anything out of the ordinary to begin with.

The thing is, everyone knows. I know, and I know that you know. We’ve been at school together, masked up. I’ve noticed how you coordinate your mask according to your outfit every day. I always saw this as a funnier part of the new reality we live in, especially because I was able to relate to that. I do the same thing. CoronaVirus has had an extreme effect in the United States, in Arizona in particular. The reality of this picture sets in. You, and all of your friends, know about COVID and the rate at which it is infecting people, and yet you still chose to get together in a large group. As much as the picture angered me, I was more sad. Sad that maybe you were so misinformed that you thought that this dance would be safe to attend. Sad that maybe you did know, and you chose to attend this dance anyways. I wanted to take this opportunity to share some knowledge and stories that I have gathered about the new reality that we live in. I hope that this letter will inspire you to take our current situation more seriously. The sooner that you do, the sooner this virus will be gone, and we can both have the best senior year imaginable.

School dances are a seminal part of a high school experience, I understand. However scientific research would suggest putting this classic moment off for a while. I know that it is hard to compromise your social life, and I won’t pretend like I’m perfect either. I have broken the rules that have been set out during this pandemic too, but it’s time to buckle down. With the virus continuing to kill people all across the world, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention clearly state that, at this point, events like school dances just aren’t safe. In the photo that you posted, I can count 8 people in the photo, and not to mention all of the other people who were at this dance. You don’t have to fully kill your social life, social interaction is important. It is one of the most important parts of life, but in this day and age, sacrifices must be made. If you and I can both sacrifice large gatherings, like the dance, for a little while, we can have them back before long. You and I both want the same thing, a great senior year. We can both get those things if we just give them up for a little while. Sacrificing some things is an unfortunate part of the new reality we live in, and I don’t like it any more than you do. However, compromises are necessary if we are ever going to beat this virus.

As CoronaVirus is such a recent global development, not much is known about it, but what I have been able to find, terrifies me. The long term effects of COVID, even if you survive initially, are startling. The long term effects that have been reported range from mental health issues to memory loss and lung problems. Due to how COVID spreads, you could be exposing your own family to potential death and the devastating long term side-effects that COVID can cause. I know that you value your family based on our conversations, and your other Instagram posts. You’re just like me. We both love and value our family, friends, and the lives of the people around us. Having had this information for so long, I’ve made reasonable cutbacks in my social life. I don’t see my friends as much as I’d like, but I can every once in and a while, and when I do, the reality of the situation sets in. No school dance, no epic senior year is worth the lives of your friends and family.

I don’t want to leave you with the wrong impression. I have no ill will towards you. I don’t hate you, and I do wish you all the best. However, the importance of taking this seriously cannot be overstated. I hope that you can learn from the resources and articles that I provided and that you will join me in helping to slow the spread of this virus. The sooner that you do, the better. Then we can all go back to what our lives used to look like. That is the goal. To be able to live life as we used to. You will be free to go to a dance with your friends and have the special, memorable, and exciting senior year that you would like to have. We can both make the most of our final year here in high school. Parties, dances, dates, extracurriculars, everything that can make this last part of our high school experience as much fun as it can be. We can both make the most of our final year. Then we can do small things, like going to that dance, or hosting a large holiday get together with friends and family, and we won’t have to worry about the enormous consequences such a simple action can have. That reality is attainable. All we have to do is compromise. For now. I hope that you will take the information and guidance I have offered into consideration. Until then, I’ll see you in Third Hour.

Best wishes,

Owen