Being sick at college is very different than being sick of college. That being said, there is a bit of cause and effect between the two. For example, when everyone first came back to school at the beginning of the fall semester, they brought with them their germs from home, which quickly transferred and morphed into a cold affectionately known as the freshman plague. Well, I got lucky enough to not only catch the freshman plague but on top of that, I got pneumonia (yay!). As such, I got a unique insight into being sick at college and how along the way I became sick of college.

Being sick at college, at least for me, meant that I spent most of my time a) making sure that I didn't infect my roommate, while b) spending the minimal amount of effort possible to achieve that goal. For about three days, pretty much all I did was sleep, watch Netflix, and contemplate the meaning of life because I get existential when I get sick. Because I was spending all of my time in my room, I was super worried that I would get my roommate sick, because we share a lot of things, such as dish/silverware, which, for obvious reasons, could very easily be a carrier for disease. The problem with, say, our bowls, was that I used all of them to eat instant oatmeal. By the time I was done eating, I was too tired to wash them, so I took a nap. When I next woke up, I was hungry again, so I went to prepare more food. The problem with cleaning up oatmeal is that if you don't clean it immediately after you eat, it hardens, and you have to let it soak before being able to clean whatever vessel you ate it in. Being in such a glazed, zombie-like state, that was just too much work, so the dishes accumulated until my roommate washed them because she needed them for her own snacking. I felt awful, both because of pneumonia, and also because my inability to do anything meant that my roommate was at a higher risk of infection. Luckily, I'm the only person who I know who had pneumonia (knock on wood), so thank you, universe, for that.

The other issue with being sick at college is that you miss a lot of work. I only skipped three days of class, but it's amazing what a backlog of homework this created. So even though I was better and going to class, I was still sick and had to try to play catch up with my work. It was amazing how quickly this led me to become sick of school. I mean, I didn't want to read about China in the 500s when I was barely aware of what was happening in 2016 America. When I was laying in bed, thinking about how my throat felt like I had swallowed a cactus, I thought about how my mom, whenever I was sick, would bring me hot tea and generally pamper me. I thought to myself, "Man, maybe this whole independence thing isn't as great as I thought it was." That was probably when I was the most sick of college.

The most important takeaway of being sick at college is that there are great resources to help you get better. Now, I did have to walk all of ten minutes to CVS to get my prescriptions, but they helped me feel a lot better. And while I was sick of college, too, that was only temporary. Back on my feet and caught up on my work, I'm just as enamored with the independence and liberties college allows me to embrace as I was before I was sick.