Will we stay on campus?

Since the start of school on August 17th, 2020, my fear/outlook of COVID-19 has changed dramatically. The best way to describe my feelings toward this pandemic, and the rest of this semester is optimistic. After many friends tested positive COVID-19, they all quarantined, so they did not infect others and recovered quickly. The only problem is there is so much unknown. After they have recovered, many students now have a sense of invincibility and no longer choose to take safety measures such as avoid being in large groups. I feel these feelings of invincibility will only increase, and the fear of COVID-19 among young adults will decrease as many students see their friends recover quickly without many implications. With Halloween and other events nearing, I fear it will only get worse. Even though this could be the case, I am still optimistic that the university will stay open until the rest of the semester as it is still socially frowned upon to be in a large gathering and not to wear a mask deterring many students from participating in these behaviors. With this said, I have run into many frustrating situations where I have had to leave a location because of people not socially distancing or wearing a mask in places such as the library and other public areas on campus. There have been multiple instances I know of where a neighbor will anonymously report a large gathering of people not wearing masks on their street. It seems the status quo is still luckily to take the pandemic seriously, which furthers my optimism. The last aspect hindering my complete optimism is greek life and the lack of social distancing in these groups. Measures have been taken to test members of these groups and crackdown on not socially distancing events. I believe the University of Kentucky is handling the situations to the best of their abilities, and we will continue to remain on campus.