Member-only story
“Why Didn’t You Vaccinate Me?”
A letter from the not-so-distant future.
“Why didn’t you vaccinate me? So I could participate in sports, so I could go back to school? Why did you force me to be home-schooled? I missed my friends.
“I didn’t mind wearing a mask. Everyone was wearing them. This wasn’t about me. It was about you. You were stubborn. You were scared. It’s okay. I was scared, too. We were all scared. But why couldn’t you be honest about it instead of ripping off your mask and yelling at store workers who asked you to put it on? Do you know how embarrassed I was?
“Why did you make me go online to find a way to get vaccinated behind your back? Why did you make us move to a place with no vaccine mandates? Why didn’t you take me to get a free shot? Did you know parents in Mexico sent their kids on buses to Texas and California to get the vaccine? And you couldn’t take me to CVS?
“Didn’t you realize I was more than an extension of your beliefs? More than a political bargaining chip? I’m a person. You never asked me if I wanted to be vaccinated. You didn’t care.
“I was alone and isolated. I was teased by other kids. I was afraid I would get sick. I heard stories of people on ventilators and I cried myself to sleep, and I didn’t want to tell you because you would just go off about how it was…
