Finals are the most stressful time of the year and being sick at school is one of the worst things can happen to a college student on a regular basis. Put them together and you have a pretty miserable week ahead of yourself. Being sick during finals week this past semester was hands down one of the worst experiences I've had in college. But it taught me a really valuable lesson about our professors.
I used to roll my eyes and laugh at all the emails we would get from school, suggesting different ideas for study breaks and relieving stress during finals. They tried so desperately to say in every way they could that they cared about us and our health. I thought this was the most annoying thing in the world because I'm the kind of person who hates being told to stop stressing out or to calm down. However, being sick during finals taught me that our school actually does care about our health and that our professors do as well.
When I woke up on the first day of finals, also the day of my first final, with an awful case of flu-like symptoms, I was terrified. I tried walking to my 8 a.m. final, but I ended up needing to sit down so I wouldn't collapse. When I finally worked up the energy to walk back to my room, I emailed my professor immediately and called DPS for a ride to the health center.
I emailed my other professors whose finals I had during the next two days as well, asking if there was any way I could take them later. My friends warned me that my professors might not be willing to move the exams. But to my surprise, they were more than willing. They did anything they could to accommodate me, offering many different times that I could come in to take my exams.
They all asked me when I showed up to my test how I felt and told me when I left that they hoped I would feel better. I wasn't expecting them to be this easygoing at all. But then when I thought about it, professors are people, too. They know what it's like to get the flu and I'm sure they've all had experiences where things didn't go exactly according to plan.
Basically, I learned that professors are human beings just like us. They're a lot more easy-going than we expect them to be and even though we only have interactions with them for a semester, they do actually care about our well-being. If you're ever feeling under the weather and you feel pressured to attend class anyway, let your professor know immediately and I'm sure they'll understand.
