Going into a new semester can always be frustrating. You don't have your routine down yet. There are all sorts of new people. there are new classes. You have to start everything all over again. There's a lot of moving parts. The one thing that can make all of this chaos just a little bit worse in nearly every aspect is adding an illness to it. I was fine for all of break, but the day before moving back in, what should add excitement to things more than an awful cough and a fading voice?
Here are all the things that I learned after starting off the new semester sick.
1. Unpacking sucks a LOT more
Unpacking and packing are my least favorite parts of traveling anywhere, but it sucks so much more when you want everything to be in order and you already feel like garbage and just want to crawl into bed with the mess around you.
2. You can't hang
When you come back to school, you get to see your friends again and it's very exciting. However, if you have any regard for your friends at all, you're going to be worried about them getting sick and you're dead tired anyway.
3. Everything seems like too much effort
Getting out of bed? Too much work. Going to the dining hall? WAY too much work. Everything just gets a lot harder to want to achieve.
4. Your first class sucks because you don't feel well
I know everyone already hates name, major, and one fun fact about yourself, but there's a definite challenge added to the game when you have no voice.
5. You don't want to cough all over your new classmates
There is no convenient place to have a cough other than at home in bed. That being said, your first few days of classes are a struggle because coughing is no one's friend, but when it has to happen, it does. It's gross and annoying and no one really wants to be around you, including you.
6. All you want to do is sleep
When every class is just a read-along from the syllabus, it's already hard to pay attention. When all you want to do is sleep and you have to sit through syllabus week, it's absolute torture.
7. There's all sorts of free food and you don't want to eat any of it
I don't know what it is about the first weeks of semesters, but everyone is trying to give you free food. It's the best when you're feeling up to it, but when you're under the weather it's all there and you don't even want it.
8. You're tied to a pill bottle
Medicine can help you feel great... while it lasts. You're trying to make it through your classes and are consistently counting down the hours until you can take medicine again.
9. You still have to do all of your work
Even when you have a sick day in college, no one will excuse you from your job, homework, and requirements of existence. You still have to do it all, no matter the circumstances.
10. You can't do any of the new semester activities
Much like the free food, there are always fun activities planned for students at the start of the semester. Likely, you're not feeling up to those either which sucks because they're only planned for the beginning of the semester.
11. You can't wait for the day that you feel better
I'm finally starting to be on an upswing with whatever I had and I can't wait for it to be over with. It's been a disgusting and tiresome first week and I don't wish first-week illness on anyone.
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