While all students have been given the choice of returning to campus or remaining online, and most college-aged students are healthy, the number of cases being reported to LSU is growing rapidly, as it is at many other universities. Many students are not reporting their cases and continue to host large-scale parties.

My opinion might seem utopian. However, I continue to uphold what I learn at home every day: the value of moderation. Even if it is easier to say it than to put it into practice, I believe that is what governance should be about; moderation. In this pandemic, it was not about choosing between economy and health, much less destroying one at the expense of the other. It would have been enough to find a point of balance that could protect both.

In Uruguay, the pandemic was not approached through a politicized lens or imbued with a bias of any kind. The apolitical nature of the pandemic meant that there was no division within the population. Nobody doubted the presence of the virus and everybody knew the stakes, which were especially daunting considering that Uruguay has an aging population. There were no trivial protests or deniers, unlike in some other countries.  

I have already lost count of how many times my mom had mentioned Korea since the coronavirus had flooded our lives and thoughts. During dinner, my younger sister would roll her eyes, sick of this constant chatter over South Korea’s handling of the coronavirus. But, nonetheless, my mom would continue on about how still, despite this worldwide pandemic, Korea wasn’t under a lockdown, Korea wasn’t banning Chinese citizens from entering the country, Korea wasn’t under major panic. In spite of this immediate and sudden chaos, Korea was the closest to normal.

I found myself watching over the people one particular evening. From the thirty-fifth floor of a corporate housing unit, to be exact. This may seem strange considering how most people would actively run away from the city during a worldwide pandemic, but sometimes there’s more than one kind of logic. And sometimes they can each be right in their own respective ways. So how does one find themself in perhaps the most random of locations on a casual Friday night, in the throes of a global crisis? To put things simply, in the midst of quarantine, my family was losing it.