Remember when you were in elementary and middle school and you got stay home from school because you were sick? Those sick days were like hitting the jackpot, aside from the sick days when you were actually sick. But as you grow up, sick days begin to lose that flair of excitement because they happened less often and quite frankly, usually involved being absolutely miserable. Once you get to college, being sick has transformed into some sort of curse you would only wish upon your worst enemies, and here are my five reasons why:
1. You’re even more lazy than normal.
It’s not a fun lazy, it’s not by choice. We've all been there, or at least I have. You just feel so incredibly awful, and all you want to do is lay in bed without moving. When you were younger, staying in bed or on the couch all day included unlimited TV or movies and meals brought directly to you. As a college student, staying in bed is still kind of fun with Netflix. But alternating between "Grey’s Anatomy" and a three-hour nap gets old real quick.
2. Missing class means losing money.
You read that correctly. Just an FYI, you lose money every time you miss class. College ain't cheap. I'm sure we are all too familiar with the insanely large amount of money we are being charged for higher education. And depending on what level course you're taking, you could miss out on some seriously valuable information pertaining to your future.
3. Professors demand a doctor's note.
So if you absolutely have to miss class, typically professors will excuse you if you bring proof in the form of a doctor's note. But here's the thing: broke college kids don’t have time or money to go to an actual doctor's office. My school has an on-campus health center, but you aren't guaranteed a note unless they find something wrong with you. So, if you've got a mild case of the common cold, good luck getting a note. And even then, you still have to pay for the medication. Granted it's at a discounted rate, but still pretty inconvenient.
4. How they heck are you supposed to know what medicine to take?
Unless you do go to the doctor or campus clinic, you probably won't get any sort of prescription medicine to soothe your illness. So you resort to Advil, Benadryl, Ibuprofen and some other sort of off-brand allergy medicine from Walgreen's. But what goes with what? So you sit there asking yourself: What are sinuses? What if it's just a cough? Can I still take "Cough and Cold?" Do I really need to take the non-drowsy for class? Is there really even a difference between Nighttime and Daytime?
5. You just want your mom.
And who do we turn to when we need answers to life's important questions? No one can replace the woman who cared for you through all those early age stomach bugs, sinus infections and fevers. She was the one who made sure you had enough blankets and made the most delicious chicken noodle soup imaginable. To this day, you still can't exactly figure out how she made canned soup taste so darn good all those years ago. So you call her up and ask her all your bizarre questions about what's normal and worth a trip to the doctor. Bless all the mothers out there that seem to always know what's wrong, but especially how to keep us calm while we try to figure out how to do this whole adult thing ourselves.
