Keep your pants on. Wear your mask.

The vaccine AND your mask are your ticket to normalcy.

The reward for receiving the COVID-19 vaccine isn’t to ditch the mask — the reward is to significantly minimize your chances of severe illness or death.

We must reframe our thinking and our expectations if we are to reclaim a sustained sense of normalcy.

I get it, “What is normalcy?” When I think about life and how to find meaning, it is about experiences. It is about seeing your friends and family and it is about exploring this wonderful world.

Given the number of unvaccinated population (by choice) coupled with people who aren’t eligible for the vaccine, wearing a mask may actually be the only thing that allows “normalcy” to be possible.

Many of us remember this pee test meme from 2020 that helped explain why wearing a mask was critical.

Was your expectation — and perhaps what we were promised — that with the vaccine came the privilege of showing your teeth again? Mine was too. We have to get beyond this expectation aand create a new one. One that enables us to reclaim normalcy and live a life of meaning and fulfillment. I won’t pretend to know what brings you this type of value, but I’m willing to bet wearing a mask makes what you value a possibility.

Keep your pants on and let’s all just ride this Delta variant wave together— the vaccinated, the unvaccinated, and the ones who identify as vaccinated.