Almost exactly a year ago, grocery stores were practically ransacked. Basic necessities were hard to come by and it wasn’t too far-fetched to assume we were nearing the end of the world. 

Ridiculous, I know. 

Although there were not too many COVID-19 cases in the United States at the time, mass hysteria was rampant. The panic slowly died off as time went on, and some people stopped being careful. Some abandoned the reality we live in altogether. COVID cases were rising, but the urgency of the situation was becoming muted. Even a global pandemic couldn’t make people care about it.

Until, that is, mother nature turned a cold shoulder on toaster-oven-Texas and brought along what no one ever thought we would really see: winter. 

Bitter, icy, slippery winter.

If Texas was a pipe, it would have burst instantly. Instead of only toilet paper and soap, every grocery store within 10 miles of Coppell was completely sold out. Meat was out of stock before you could say “three to five inches of snow” and every frozen meal swiftly sold like hand sanitizer had been just last year. 

The streets were barren. No one wanted to risk the danger of going outside in such dangerous conditions. It’s been an entire year since most of us cared so much about a disaster that could seriously harm us. 

The winter storms are over and Texas is back to its regularly scheduled 70-degree weather, but the pandemic is still happening. 

Coppell, we owe it to each other and ourselves to care about the things that matter. Maintain that same stubborn attitude of staying inside for the sake of your own safety so that perhaps in a month or two, you can actually go to a small get-together or a trip to the mall without risking your life and the lives of everyone you come in contact with.

Don’t you want to be free again?

Don’t you want to have a social summer rather than a socially distanced one?

Stay inside. Please.

Follow Camila Villarreal (@fliipthewriter) and @CHSCampusNews on Twitter.