Some in community still prefer masking

AACC students who still wear masks on campus said their reasons go beyond preventing illness.

Third-year theater student Aidan Henderson said masks can serve as a sense of comfort.

“I think it has helped a lot of people with some insecurities, but ... it’s also become a crutch,” Henderson said.

Deneen Dangerfield, dean of student development, said wearing a mask on campus is optional.

AACC lifted its mask mandate last May, about two years after the beginning of the pandemic.

Still, some students continue to wear face coverings on campus, and not only for health reasons.

“I like to try to coordinate it with what I’m wearing,” Henderson said. “I have several that are cute patterns.”

Mask-wearers said others don’t seem to notice them.

Fourth-year photography student Graig Bracey, who still wears a mask around campus, said he doesn’t get “any type of reaction at all nowadays” from unmasked strangers.

Bracey said masks have become a part of the culture, but back in 2020, “some people actually took offense.”

Winters said seasonal depression is diagnosed by psychotherapists as Seasonal Affective Disorder and is known by the acronym SAD.

Winters defined SAD as a sort of depression related to changes of the seasons. It is typically triggered in winter because of less sunlight and shorter days.

“I notice I start to slack off a little bit,” Payton Thompson, a first-year transfer studies student, said. “And I get tired sooner in the day when I feel this pressure like I should be doing something.”

Psychology professor Linda Donovan, a psychotherapist, said SAD is most commonly found in teens and young adults.