Dear Coronavirus,

What a mess you’ve made.

I don’t know what your intentions were but, let me tell you, you have been in more news headlines than Jennifer Lopez in the Super Bowl’s halftime show and Donald Trump’s lies.

You have had websites and programs designed specially for you, personalized hashtags, trillions of memes circling the world and have been given an unimaginable amount of money for the problem you’ve started. If you were a person, you’d be richer than Bill Gates.

According to the Worldometer, you have reached 210 countries and territories, crossing every border without even a passport or a visa, leaving over 2.6 million people with fevers and shortness of breath. And, without hesitation or regret, you have taken more than 180,000 lives.

Why are you here, Coronavirus?

You have forced a lot of businesses to close, many of them potentially forever. Economist Heidi Shierholz predicts that nearly 20 million Americans will be out of work by July, according to The Washington Post.

If people were struggling to pay rent or get food before, imagine them now. In an interview with The New York Times, Arif Husain, chief economist at the World Food Program, estimated that “265 million people could be pushed to the brink of starvation by year’s end.”

The list is never ending. You have broken every record and overcome all expectations within a few short months. You won’t be forgotten easily — you will quite possibly never be forgiven. In fact, it is safe to say you will be in my children and grandchildren’s history books.

Coronavirus, you have made every kid’s dream of not going to school possible in the worst way. You turned grocery shopping into the most exciting moment of the week and taking out the garbage has become a new hobby. You even almost declared toilet paper as the new world currency and forced masks to be the newest fashion statement.

Coronavirus, you have definitely left your mark on us and taught us a lesson — at least I hope some lessons come from this for people. I truly hope that, when we come out on the other side, we rethink our lifestyles and choices.

Who cares about having the newest iPhone, the most expensive Porsche or a Louis Vuitton purse, if we can’t even see our family and friends at the end of the day?

We let violence, selfishness, jealousy, superficiality, hatred, inequality and complaints reign our lives. We forgot to dedicate our time to the ones we love, help the ones in need, and not to take things for granted. We need to learn from this. All the losses and suffering have to mean something. Hopefully, us humans can be smart for once in our lives.

I hope to never hear back from you, Coronavirus.

With a sour and sweet hate-love,

Bruna