Almost two years ago when I first met the person I'm not dating, they were extremely isolated. They either went to work or stayed at home in their basement room and that was about it. I immediately saw and understood that they were basically going insane. They're doing a lot better now, in part because we started going out more. We need to be around other people to survive.

This is perhaps controversial on this site, but I'll be honest. We're both vaccinated, and I had vanilla covid in 2020 even after taking pretty strong precautions. By this point, the danger posed to me and mine by this disease feels no more exceptional than all of the other shit threatening my life and health by living in America in 2023. There are microplastics in my brain, PFAs in my food and blood, frothing fash who want to murder me for my supposed removed, insane carbrains trying to kill me on the road because I'm biking, and an ecosphere that's rapidly being disassembled down to its component chemicals. No individual action will really fix these other issues, so I wonder if we fixate on covid because it's a bit more under individual influence as to whether it impacts us or not. I ultimately decided it's just not worth it. I mask up in crowded situations but other than that I refuse to lose my mind in isolation.