Civil responsibility can be a generalized term for the many ways we can care for one another, and getting vaccines is a part of civic responsibility. It’s like putting the shopping cart back in their designated spot in the supermarket parking lot.

I’m not here to tell you how important the vaccine is though, there are plenty of other people doing that for you, and I believe in making decisions for yourself. I want to debate a newer issue I’ve been seeing.

All around me, being a diverse set of young adults, all in varying stages of life, I can see a simmering dissatisfaction. By being one of those students and talking to my groups of people both in my extracurriculars, and acquaintances in my classes, I have gathered where this dissatisfaction comes from.

It’s a tiny piece of cloth resting on all our faces, each being unique to that individual, all in different shapes and sizes. But this cloth has more significance than just fashion. This cloth has been single-handedly standing for the entire world and its fight against a worldwide pandemic since November 2019.

But why this dissatisfaction? Among all of the people, the most divided age group could arguably be the young adults. An even half and half split on the need to wear masks was a heavily debated topic for much of 2020. Yet the world pulled through, and masks are now a staple, expected and needed.

There was then a massive case of survivors’ guilt for many middle and young adults who were not prone to easily get the virus, many having been proactive in social isolation and other such protective mandates.

I personally never had COVID-19, but I was around many of my friends and family who did. I felt awful watching them suffer, but I also understood the events leading to their infection were not their own, or another’s. No single person was ever to blame in any of this.

We are literally fighting a minuscule, airborne organism, not each other. That fact is easily forgotten in the mess it has left us in.

Now, nearly two years into the reign the virus has kept over us, we are finally testing the waters of a “normal” life again. Many mandates were lifted over the course of this past summer, allowing many old things to resume as normal, but time has shown that it may have been too soon.

Now I am seeing an equal but opposite reaction to the survivor’s guilt of the past year, I’m now seeing a survivor’s arrogance. An even split between those who are vaccinated and those who aren’t, yet both parties are entitled to the hero syndrome of “beating COVID, and this is how.”

Now, this attitude is leading to an idea of, “I did my part, why am I not getting the benefits?” which is a very valid feeling. Many people pushed for quarantine, masks and the vaccines, and did what they were told, yet they are still suffering as the world tries time and time again to resume normality and it keeps failing over and over.

It’s easy to start doubting normalcy will never be achieved again. We’ll have a new normal. Those who feel anger at this failure feel arrogant that they are safe and free and will force normalcy back no matter if others are ready or not.

The ones who had previously pushed for proactive safety measures are now fighting back. We feel we deserve to be normal now because we are vaccinated and have been safe, and the ones who still fight the vaccine deserve what they get for their actions. A vague sense of anti-masking on their part is surfacing, and survivors’ arrogance can be seen on every person’s face.

What we all want to see is each other’s faces, bare and safe, but the time is yet to come. We’ll never know when the time will come, if it will ever truly be safe again, but what we shouldn’t do is force that time upon the world too soon. Patience will always win out, and the most we can do is care for one another.