My name is Walt Jimenez. I am 41 years old born in 1979. I am an Asian man of Filipino-Spanish descent, but I am 100% Canadian and was born and raised on Canadian soil. I practically bleed Maple Syrup. English is my main language. I have not had any illness or colds since April of 2019. That was two whole years ago and well before the current pandemic began. My family and I have always obeyed COVID-19 rules, and policies since the beginning of February 2020 and I can attribute my excellent health to the extreme social distancing methods, face mask wearing, and constant washing of hands and just general good hygiene practices. Before the summer of 2019 I did not really follow those simple rules and our family members regularly took turns getting sick with colds, and flu at least three times a year previously even with regular annual cold & flu vaccinations. It really goes to show what a positive difference it makes to follow rules and not spread sickness.
My spouse Marie and I had also made some changes in our autistic son Xavier's education at the end of the 2019 school year in June when he had finished Kindergarten. We had decided to begin homeschooling him in September 2019 where he would start Grade 1. When we had him kept at home rather than being together with hundreds of other children or away from publicly used spaces, we noticed that none of us would ever get sick. We absolutely did care that he would be missing out on important social contact, but we felt that he needed us with a bigger focus on individualized learning to help him feel comfortable in his own progression. In previous years, where he went to daycare, preschool, and kindergarten, it almost seemed like a never ending cycle of getting sick. One or all three of us would be getting sick every other month it seemed.
I remember the first time I heard about the new Novel Corona Virus way back in the first week of December 2019. I saw it on the news several times and distinctly remember that it began with a reported outbreak of 64 infected people in Wuhan, China, and knew it was extremely serious as soon as they even mentioned "CDC" (The Center for Disease Control) and no cure. Right then and there I took it extremely seriously, and began denying business meetings, turning down friendly meets with friends, and even not visiting family before it was even announced that we had to do so. I regularly checked on updates on the news for this Novel Corona Virus that would become referred to COVID-19. Every time I heard about it, the numbers multiplied...64, 266, 1100, 2800, 4200, 10,000, 14,000 etc. and the days and weeks went by and the numbers kept skyrocketing. More and more countries were reporting outbreaks, and it was getting worse by the day.
For me when social distancing rules were announced in March 2020, not much had really changed for me at all. I had already taken a backseat from big social meets and interactions. I feel like I already naturally started social distancing in the past few years since I was probably around 35-years old back in 2014. Perhaps it was the realization that I needed to be a better dad. I just wasn't interested in abusing my health, partying so hard that my wallet was empty, and having to suffer effects of a hangover for 24 hours anymore. In my mid 30's I pretty much stopped drinking any alcohol for my own personal health. The last time I had an actual hangover was September 2018 and that's because I went to a bachelor party for my cousin. In my 30's I was absolutely not the party animal, that I was in my 20's. In my 20's I also used to smoke like a chimney buying packs of cigarettes from the years 2000 to 2008 but I did manage to quit and quite successfully. 2008 (29-years old) for me was a very rough year battling depression, ulcers, and extreme overworking and anxiety. After that, I made some lifestyle changes and came out stronger than ever. Even now, I don't over indulge in anything except maybe Netflix, and video games.
A positive thing about being locked down and staying indoors, was that it brought me closer to my family via video conferencing. I was and still am talking more often to my siblings and parents via Facetime, Zoom, and WhatsApp more than I have in years or even decades. I love my my family and we were brought even closer together in the fear of losing our parents and elderly to COVID-19.
Then starting in March 2020, I tried out my own social experiment over a number of months to observe people's behavior when I did or didn't wear a mask. I religiously walk my dog twice a day around the neighborhood. Most of the time I would wear a mask to cover my nose and mouth but sometimes I purposely didn't and was making some astute observations. I randomly recorded that on average, 5 out of 10 times, people will berth wide and walk around me when I wear a mask and only 1 out 10 times people would walk further away to avoid me when I didn't wear a mask. To me, this is totally backwards and not right. I can only extrapolate and try to understand the logic here. It could be that some people automatically associate mask wearing, with already being sick which is false. It could also be assumed that these people are associating non-mask wearing individuals as not being a threat, or not being infected with COVID-19 which is also false. Perhaps, it could be simplified that most people just favor unmasked individuals over masked individuals because their identity can be made and therefore seem safer!? That's not a very wise assumption that people should be making either. People need to understand that masks make it safer, period.
While outdoors and social distancing while riding my bike I again made some other observations. A few times while out riding my bike while wearing a mask, I received some dirty frowning looks. Other times I got weird comments like, "Are you feeling okay to be out like that?" or "You aren't social distancing." (commentor walks closely with a group of four other people not even social distancing amongst themselves). I just shake my head and wonder why these people exist. Racism towards me is not new to me whether it be a joking matter or a serious threat to my well-being. Every time I hear about racism, or anti-maskers, or anti-vaxxers, or anti-asian hate and violence, the more and more I think that Thanos actually had the right idea. Oh well, at least it's just cowardly words. If they would actually come at me they'd just be digging their own graves.
