The One Time People Are Supposed to Wear Masks, But Don’t

graphic by alexa kroin

Ah, Halloween, the best time to stuff your face with candy, dress as bizarre as possible, and show off that “scary” zombie mask you made (or, for the more last-minute people, just cover yourself in that sheet you used for the ghost photoshoot). But, honestly, the scariest thing we saw under Halloween’s full blue moon was the maskless partiers wandering the residence halls and campus neighborhood streets. As social media timelines were dominated by photos from maskless and social distance-less parties, we have to say it: Why does it feel like no one got in trouble for this??

Back in March, it hadn’t occurred to anyone that life would still be recovering from corona by the time everyone’s fav spooky holiday hit, and yet, here we are. COVID-19 has shifted the whole partying mindset from a college right of passage to a cardinal sin. While the strict rules and guidelines put in place are there for safety reasons and are incredibly important, it’s okay to think that they’re starting to get annoying—the party culture and community at SU are two of the main reasons why people love it so much! Halloweekend is a college staple, and it's understandable to feel like you’ve been robbed of the college experience by not being able to throw epic ragers and party until the sun comes up.

However, while it does suck to have to keep dealing with this (and keep in mind that there are people who have it far worse than you do), we’re only going to make things a lot worse for ourselves if we don’t follow the rules. We need to wear masks. As much as it sucks, safety has to come first. We have to remember that our friends’ health is on the line here too. So, why is it, on the ONE night where people can actually be more creative and spooky with their masks, many students weren’t wearing masks at all?? What seems even crazier is that the parties thrown in the dorms were largely uninterrupted. If everyone can hear the freshman in Dellplain scream-singing along to the lyrics of old bangers, then we’re pretty sure that the RAs can hear it too…

As the amount of cases continues to rise, we have to remember to keep wearing our masks, if not to protect ourselves, then to protect the fierce badass bitches around us!! We don’t have much time left, so make it count, wear your mask, and don’t be a selfish asshole :)