Marissa Bergquist, ’22

The Catalyst (TC): What was your initial reaction to the masking guidelines?

Marissa Bergquist (MB): I was kind of surprised because it felt like it came out of nowhere. 

TC: How are you feeling now about the new masking guidelines?

MB: For me personally, I want to wear my mask but I don’t really mind if people around me don’t or if they do. I can see reasoning on both sides, personally I’d just rather wear it. 

TC: Why do you choose to wear masks?

MB: I just feel like it makes people feel more comfortable and I’m willing to do that, and I don’t really think like it’s a big sacrifice to wear one. Sometimes I look crazy, so it covers it up sometimes too.

TC: What do you think of the people who think differently from you, those who are wearing or not wearing masks?

MB: I can see the reasoning, maybe, behind it, like why they might not want to wear the mask, but I don’t have any animosity towards it. I feel like everyone has different sources on different things, so it’s hard to have the same opinion on whether or not to wear a mask. 

TC: Do you think that dropping masks in school was the best decision for the state to make?

MB: Okay, I have a complex answer for this. I don’t think it was the best decision, especially because I think, I don’t know if this is true, but I thought I heard the cases are going up again. So I don’t know if it was the best decision, but also in the first place people weren’t wearing them correctly anyway. 

TC: Do you think that there should be an online option for community members who are not comfortable with these masking guidelines?

MB: Yeah, and I don’t think it’s that hard to do the online model. Like for the hybrid model, it’s not that hard to just put a Zoom on in my opinion, I’m not a teacher, but I think it should definitely be an option for people.