*Editor’s note: I wrote this a few months ago and just discovered it. I thought it timely with the resurgence of the Delta variant and the start of a new school year.*

One big difference both Mom and I noticed between our home and Hawaii was mask wearing compliance. Both of us have expressed frustration with the people who refuse to wear masks as well as the ones who cannot seem to figure out that they breathe through their nose not their chin. It’s hard to look at this and know that compliance with this one simple suggestion could have affected such a difference in the course of this pandemic and to individual people’s lives.

While in Hawaii, Mom and I derived so much pleasure, an inordinate amount really, out of observations of people following protocols aka doing what they’re supposed to do. Only on rare occasions did we see people having difficulty with mask placement. For example, while no our Pearl Harbor tour, waiting to board the Navy boat to visit the Arizona Memorial, I noticed an older woman with the mask resting below her nose. It slipped down even further periodically but when she adjusted it, she never quite managed to bring it above her nose. While this happens all too frequently here in Greenville, this one woman stood out in Hawaii.

Once we returned to the Charlotte airport, something else became obvious. All of the airports played announcement about the mask wearing federal mandate. Charlotte’s announcement stood out due to what it lacked in comparison to the ones we heard in the four other airports we found ourselves in over the course of the trip. All of them, save Charlotte, reminded people that the mask should cover both mouth and nose. Charlotte’s announcement simply stated the presence of the mandate. Even more than the announcements, I could tell just by looking around that we had returned to the south. In the first hundred meters or so, I saw multiple people with mask compliance issues. I thought about counting but quickly realized the futility.

What makes the difference? Although I do not know for sure, I can hypothesize that it must have something to do with how much it affects people personally. Hawaii depends incredibly on tourism. With all the travel restrictions, the necessary restrictions, Hawaii’s unemployment rate skyrocketed. (Our guide in Pearl Harbor told us the exact number but since I did not write it down, I no longer remember.) Even more significantly, only one island, Oahu on which is the capital Honolulu, has hospitals capable of performing surgeries. The other islands have some small clinics with a small number of ICU beds. The health risk in that situation becomes quite real, quite quickly.

Once again, I see that the difference comes when the situation becomes personal, when it affects us or those we love. I wish that it did not take that much. I wish more people could put themselves in other’s shoes and learn to extend empathy to others.