Why I’m Still Masking in 2025: a personal story

We’re delighted to feature a post from one of our volunteers, Kaylie, who describes getting COVID back in 2021 and is determined to not get another incidence of it.

I want to explain why I’m still masking in 2025. It started the weekend before Easter 2021, when I took a bus to Philadelphia to visit my brother. We had a nice, casual time hanging out with his cats and catching up. As the weekend wrapped up, I got on the bus back to NYC in time for my Sunday night shift.

At the time, masks were required on the bus. At the time, the messaging was that any mask will work. They said the only reason someone would need an N95 is if someone who wasn’t masked at all was breathing on them. I figured that wouldn’t be me, since everyone was required to be masked, and my KN95s hurt my ears anyway, so I wore a cloth mask.

The bus back to NYC was sold out. Every seat was full. I ended up in an aisle seat. Across the aisle from me, there were two friends who were chatting. The one in the aisle seat kept pulling her mask down to wipe her nose, and she kept her mask down to tell her friend how sick she was.

I tested positive on the Friday before Easter. I didn’t feel too sick, but I definitely had something, and I didn’t want to give it to my grandma. At the time, I thought I would be fine. I was vaccinated, and my symptoms weren’t too bad. I was out of work for a week, but the day I tested negative I started playing kickball in a recreational league in the city. I figured it would be good to get my body moving again after spending so much time in bed.

A couple months later, I slept for 19 hours straight. I slept through the whole day, I slept through the whole night, I slept through my alarm and my boss trying to get hold of me and my entire shift and my mom calling me after they called her. When I woke up, I was still tired. I stayed tired for about a year.

And I’m lucky.

It could have been way worse. I could have been a lot more exhausted. I could have lost my job. It could have lasted a lot longer. I could still be tired.

Some people who get long COVID get ME/CFS and have to stay in their house or in their bed. Some people get POTS, some people get brain fog, some people get diabetes. There are over 200 symptoms and illnesses associated with Long COVID. I don’t want any of them!! I don’t want to get covid again and get tired for another year, a decade, the rest of my life. Our understanding of COVID and Long COVID is always growing and changing. Maybe someday there will be a vaccine that treats it. Maybe there will be a foolproof way of preventing long covid. But until there is, I will try to protect myself from getting Covid for any length of time again. I’m not perfect. I’ve done risky things in these past 5 years. But every time I wear my mask to work, to the grocery store, to a show, I am happy to know I am protecting myself and others around me. I am living my life, and it looks similar to how it did before, except you can’t see half my face. No big deal compared to not being able to live my life at all.