Encountering Pandemics (original publication: 9/15/2020)

 I learned why children move out of their parents's house. Again and again and again. 

I learned how important it is to have somewhere to go that's your own. Somewhere you can be yourself with no witness but yourself. 

I learned that for every minority uttering "I can't breathe" to a cop, there's some idiot claiming they can't breathe while wearing masks and thus refuse to wear them in public...y'know, despite the unprecedented global pandemic. 

I learned you can make a movie in your basement by yourself so long as you've got a camera. 

I learned that international crises do not make women any more understandable or less confusing. 

I learned how impossible it is to be in a 21-year-old male body that wakes up on fire every morning without the possibility of inviting a girl over later for fear of killing his family. 

I learned what love looks like in the form of my brothers helping me not freak the fuck out after I fell asleep at the wheel driving cross-country with both of them as passengers. I learned what love looks like in the form of my mother giving my father a kidney, my siblings coming home to help out, the five of us cleaning the house top to bottom while they were in operation. I learned what the love of an entire town looks like through countless meals being made, bought, and delivered to my house after the surgeries. I learned how diverse the chefs of Fairfield are, whether cooking at home or professionally. 

I learned a lot about being a leader by being a bad one. I learned a lot about being a leader by being a good one. I learned a lot about myself and my morals by doing both. 

I learned the resiliency of an entire planet when faced with the idea of global deaths skyrocketing because some guy ate a bat a little while ago. I learned there will always be hope, there will always be a good fight, and I learned that if for one second I ever stop fighting that fight, I've immediately lost the battle. 

I learned the end of the world can be a very educating experience.