With midterms just around the corner and a seemingly endless load of assignments and responsibilities, getting sick during the semester is every college student’s nightmare. But between late nights, cold weather, and coming in contact with so many other people on a day-to-day basis, it’s bound to happen to everyone at some point. Unfortunately, college students don’t get sick days like working adults, nor do they (typically) get merciful extensions on assignments like the good old elementary school days. Here are ten stages that sum up the struggle of being sick as a college student:
1. Denial
You can't possibly be sick. You have three midterms and a paper due next week; you are not getting sick. This is not happening!
2. Determination
Maybe if you load up on Emergen-C, ibuprofen, NyQuil, zinc, and whatever else you can find in your medicine cabinet, you can ward off this sickness.
3. Defeat
That feeling when you wake up the next morning and you face the brutal truth: You are indeed sick.
4. Paranoia
We all know that googling runny nose, sore throat, and fever is sure to bring up results like cancer or lupus when really you just have a cold. Yet it's so tempting to see what the internet has to say.
5. Frustration
After Google tells you you only have six months to live, you go to the doctor, only to find yourself waiting for three hours in the waiting room. Then you have a five minute appointment with your doctor, where he tells you that you just have a cold and are fine to go back to school.
6. Revenge
You sit on your couch staring at the pile of textbooks that you don't have the energy to read, thinking of every person who could have possibly given you this sickness so you can get them back.
7. Nostalgia
Remember high school, when "being sick" meant faking enough symptoms to get your parents to call you in, then spending the whole day cruising around Chicago with your best friends? Okay, maybe most of us weren't as conniving as Ferris Bueller, but it was still nice to take a sick day once in a while and sit back and watch TV without worrying about failing your classes.
8. Depression
College is a completely different story. You could be throwing up around the clock and your professors don't care. The harsh reality is that the world no longer slows down when you do.
9. Germaphobia
After about day three of being sick, you vow to never let it happen again. Time to load up on disinfectant, surgical masks, and travel-size hand sanitizers for your backpack. No more germs allowed in your body!
10. Acceptance
At some point you realize that whether you're sick or not, you still probably watch more Netflix than you'd like to and study a lot less than you'd like to. At least now you have a good excuse to kick back and watch Netflix for a few days as you recover.
To all the college students under the weather this semester: hang in there, take care of yourself, and feel better soon!
