Brilliance allied with deep courage -- thank you, Lauren!

This speech and CTA was excellent!

I actually forget how weird the world is now until I start noticing things like the maskers in the background stopping to take pictures of this. I don't watch the news or anything, so every now and then I hear something and I say in surprise to my housemates "Oh, covid is still a thing?" Even my dad is hypnotized by it, and he values my opinion about health very highly now (completely different from the past, in case someone reads this who heavily can't relate, I know how you feel, never thought I would speak to my dad at all). He called me the other day to tell me how bad and dangerous it is for old people now and how my uncle got it because he "went bowling without a mask on" 🤦‍♀ My uncle probably has a closer mindset to me on this lol. But the rest of my relatives, so I've heard, wouldn't be letting me see them ever again if I didn't wear a mask and be vaccinated. What a loving thought. And yet, I remember my grandmother in her last days (decade+ before "covid"), when she heard that I had fainted from wearing a mask to be in her hospital room, she told everyone not to be silly and to go get me anyway because she didn't care. She knew what was important and had me return with no mask on.