Ilustration by Catherine Prado

Many students wear their masks under their noses or mouths, defying the whole purpose of wearing a mask in the first place. Unfortunaley some students don’t listen to those who tell them to pull their masks up.

Picture this: A modern day romcom, but in the style of a 2012 coming of age movie. And the “cool kids” are all wearing their masks under their noses.

Newsflash, it doesn’t actually make you look cool.

First off, I wonder: why would you eliminate the one thing that is keeping some mystery as to how you really look? Why are you removing that protective layer that acts as a shield to all your insecurities?

It’s beyond me.

Furthermore, when I see a nose peeking out of a mask the first thing that crosses my mind is an image of a bird. You look like a bird with your nose peeking out of your mask, it’s almost like a beak. The second thing that crosses my mind is the overwhelming urge to yank that person’s mask up over their nose.

Everyday in school I exercise a high level of self restraint because every other person in the hall is incapable of wearing their mask properly. And to those individuals who simply choose to let their mask sit on their chin: we all know it’s only there to cover your insecurities. There is no other reason for you to not have it on, and you are not fooling anyone. We all know you weren’t actually wearing it before someone told you to put it on correctly. It didn’t “fall” and you weren’t “just eating”. You simply were not wearing it over your face.

And I promise you nobody is looking at your lack of mask wearing and thinking to themselves: Gee, that person looks so cool! I wish I could be as cool as they are without their mask over their face while we are in the midst of a global pandemic!

I really do not want to hear any complaints about “not being able to breathe”. If you say you cannot breathe with a mask on you aren’t fooling anyone; try talking to dentists who wear them in their practice even before the pandemic. However, if what you say is true, you are either dramatic or you need to go to a doctor and get help.

Furthermore, if you do in fact get COVID, or even a cold or the flu, chances are you are going to have a stuffy nose. And then you’ll remember how awful it feels to actually not be able to breathe because you are so congested and have to carry around a Costco size box of tissues with you at all times.

For those of you who never fail to wear your masks, or always fix them when they fall, I will not applaud you. I appreciate it, I really do, but it is not an applause-worthy action. It’s just common sense and human decency. Thank you for doing your job.

So please, pull your mask up over your nose and mouth because you are not the main character in the coming of age teenage movie you may think you are. For the safety of everyone else and honestly, yourself, please just wear your mask properly.