As of December 14th, my whole family has COVID-19. We're incredibly blessed to have made it this far without getting it earlier. However, I can assure you, this isn't fun. We did all the right things. We wore our masks, stayed inside as much as humanly possible, and washed our hands all the time. Unfortunately, you can do all the right things, and still get the virus.

My mother is a teacher and caught the virus at her school. We waited anxiously as the teachers at her school seemed to get it one-by-one. When my mom first started showing symptoms, we started wearing masks inside our house. She was having bad body aches, a fever, and a cough.

Next was my brother. He began to have a fever a couple days later. Then he lost some of his taste.

The next thing I knew, I had a fever and a cough as well. As of yesterday, I can't taste or smell.

My dad has also been having a fever and chills, as well as a small cough.

Do I regret all the precautions we took leading up to this point since March? Absolutely not. Was it inconvenient and sometimes annoying? Yeah, sometimes. In the end though, the precautions are 100% worth it. I've watched as people from my church and community have died from this virus.

As my family anxiously checks our blood oxygen levels everyday, that's what we think about. That could be us. That could be my grandparents. That could be anyone.

Yes, those who are older tend to be more at risk than people my age. Still, you never know what can happen. The scientific community is still researching this virus. They don't know all there is to know about it.

If me wearing a mask prevents one person from dying, that's enough for me to continue to take precautions.

It has honestly been extremely shocking to see the selfishness of some of my peers as they just continue to live life like normal because "it's not fair" and "I won't die from COVID so it doesn't matter."

No, I'm not living my life in fear. I'm just taking the proper precautions to potentially save other people's lives. I'm still living my life. I made it through an extremely difficult semester and did really well in all my classes because of my hard work. I've made new memories with my family. I've found new ways to connect with my friends. And yeah, I still ran the normal errands I needed to run, but with a mask on - gasp.

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm never going to forget 2020.

As the number of cases and mortality rates rise, I beg you to please think about your fellow humans.

Yes, this whole situation sucks. We just have to deal with it. If we all can't work together to wear masks and hopefully crush this pandemic, it will never go away.

Have some compassion. Be a decent human being. Wear a mask.