Recently I woke up to a lump on my neck which was around the size of a tennis ball. After trying to convince myself for three days straight that it would disappear and that I was completely fine, my roommates finally noticed how swollen my lymph node had gotten. Thus, I was yelled at by them until I made an appointment at the medical center.

After an hour of sitting in the office with the nurse practitioner, I was sent back to my dorm with a bag of ice pops because surprise! I had mono, or mononucleosis, a virus which has plagued many college students as well as nearly any other age group you can think of. Viruses have no cure or treatment, the medicine to take for it merely dulls the symptoms.

Logically, I dragged myself back to my dorm. Each step becoming more and more unbearable because of the lethargy I was experiencing, I opened my door, collapsed into my bed, and was instantly bombarded by questions. "How was the doctor? Did they give you medicine?"

My response?

"Well guys, I. Have. Mono."

There was an immediate guilt that almost seemed to come out with the words, like I had somehow did something wrong by getting sick with the virus. I felt like I was going to be judged, and I was.

But more concerning was the amount of responsibility I felt for my actions. A person can be infected with mono for up to a month and show no symptoms of it, meaning all the people who had shared drinks with me, all my roommates, all my siblings who had shared a toothbrush holder with me when I went home-- were all at risk.

I had no idea when I had gotten mono or how long ago I had gotten it.

All I could think of was how much I had messed up, but it really became a learning experience

All of this sounds incredibly melodramatic because of how minuscule mono may seem to some people, but it really did have a huge impact on me, I was lucky in the sense that I wasn't deathly ill for the duration of it, I was functional and was lucky enough not to be bedridden. I'm honestly thankful that I got sick with mono, because it reminded me that I need to be careful.

I was getting too lax with who I was sharing things with, the sudden mono blessing reminded me that I need to stop sharing drinks with people and stop not only sharing my own germs, but being careful about who I let share with me. Because to this day I have no idea who gave me mono, and I have no idea how many people I may have given it to, all because I forgot that germs are real and you can get sick with anything at any time. Your parents really aren't joking when they say not to let anyone near your drinks.