I was looking forward to attending IC from the beginning of my BBYO career, and my parents were finally letting me go. I registered 10 minutes after it opened and I was counting down the weeks till the long weekend in February. There was so much I was excited about, but it was all ripped away in an instant.

I felt a bit sick the night before when I was packing, but I didn’t think it was anything but a cold because Covid wasn’t super prominent where I live. Just as a precaution, I took a Covid test because I couldn’t stop thinking of the ‘what if’. This is a normal thing for me and I take one whenever I have a bad cold to make sure I can leave my house. I left the test to develop for the time it needed to, but didn’t expect that I’d see a very faint line when I returned. My parents weren’t sure if they saw the line either, so I took another. This time this line was more visible and my heart broke. There’s no feeling like having something you’ve anticipated so greatly being ripped away from you.

The ethical dilemma in this situation is whether to decide to ignore the virus or not. I ended up feeling worse as the night progressed and into the next day, so I would’ve been quarantined and sent home so fast, but what if I was asymptomatic? What if I didn’t test and went anyway? Should it still be mandatory to show a Covid test before BBYO conventions, especially ones of this size? A lot of people got Covid, the flu, and many other illnesses while at convention, and in theory, that could’ve been somewhat preventable. Testing is probably still needed before these events and arguably should be done for more than just Covid, like the flu. I know that was going around a ton this year. If testing was required though, people would probably still lie and say they were negative to be able to go. In my opinion, your health comes first, and honestly, I felt awful so I wouldn’t have had very much fun if I had gone. The safety of others is also important, especially since you could be exposing people who are immunocompromised to the virus, and it would be horrible for them if they got sick. It really sucks to have to miss such a big and exciting event, and I’m still disappointed about it, but I know my family and I made the decision that we felt was best. I’ll just be wrapping myself in bubble wrap before IC 2025…