Being sick is absolutely no fun at all. The runny nose, the cough, the constant headache, I could list all of the terrible things you experience while you're sick for the next six hours. I don't think that there's a single person on this entire planet that will tell you that they enjoy being sick (at least I hope so). Well, this past weekend I learned that being sick in college is a whole different ball game.
Why is it so different being sick in college you ask? Well. To put it as raw as possible, you are all on your own. You don't have have your mom there to help you. There are so many things that you miss your mom doing for you when you're sick.
1. She reassures you that you're going to be okay
With me, there is always this initial panic of coming down with all illness. Seriously, why me? What's wrong with me? Is it serious? Is this life-threatening? What the heck is going on?! I wish I had my mom there to calm me down and let me know that I wasn't dying and that I was going to be okay.
2. She makes you the best chicken noodle soup
My mom always, without a doubt, will show up in my room with a huge steaming boil of chicken noodle soup whenever I'm feeling under the weather. Sure the soup she makes may come out of a box that I am more than capable of making on my own while at college, but it just doesn't taste as good. She makes it with love, and as lame as that sounds, it totally makes a difference.
3. She listens to you complain... a lot
To those who know me, this isn't anything new, but I tend to complain a lot when I'm sick. The first thing, and probably the only thing, I talk to people about when I'm sick, is the fact that I am sick. It's pretty annoying to just about everyone, but not to my mom. I wish my mom would sit there and listen to me complain for hours and hours, like she did at home, just because she knows it makes me feel better about the situation.
4. She makes you take your medicine
I always find this one the funniest. I am at college to become a pharmacist yet without the constant reminders from my mom, I would never take my medicine. I missed my antibiotic at least three times because she wasn't here to help me remember. Sure, my phone reminded me with alarms, but did I really care to do what my phone told me to do? Absolutely not.
5. She responds to your ridiculous requests
A cold glass of water? The lights turned off? A remote control? Rubbing your stomach? All of those things, and so many more, are things that my mother was willing to bring me, or do for me while I was sick. Being sick at college made me realize that no one where was going to do all of the things that I always had my mom to do for me. No one was there to fetch me things, or to rub my stomach, and that was so hard for me.
You never truly realize how much you've taken your mom for granted until she's no longer there. The past nineteen years my mother has been an absolute saint. She has put up with me being sick with all sorts of things and frankly I don't know how she does it. College has made me realize that she's really probably living a secret double life as a superhero, or something along those lines. I love you, mom, thanks for always taking care of me!
