No one likes being sick, ESPECIALLY while you're away at college where you can't just stay home from school, lay on the couch with a fuzzy blanket, watch Netflix, and have your mom make you chicken soup. Getting sick is probably one of the worst things that can happen (besides getting chlamydia, I guess that's probably way worse). As a college student who has been sick while away, I can tell you that it absolutely sucks. You still have to go to class or else you'll fall behind because apparently, every professor likes to teach at the speed of sound so every second that you're not in class is one-second closer to failing the entire course. Here are the five stages of being sick while away at school!
Stage 1: Denial
Getting sick always starts out with, "No, I can't be sick". You do your best to believe that it's just allergies or a fluke thing because you just CAN'T get sick. You have no time to squeeze getting sick into your already overwhelmingly busy schedule.
Stage 2: "I'm Dying"
Once you realize you are probably sick and it's not "just allergies", the only phrase that really leaves your mouth is, "I'm dying". This phrase can also be interchanged with, "I feel like death" or "I think I have the plague".
Stage 3: Acceptance
Okay, you've accepted the fact that you have gotten sick. Time to buckle down and actually go to sleep before 2 am and take care of yourself so this doesn't last longer than it needs to. You can do this!
Stage 4: The Doctor
Since coming to college you feel like you've become the all knowledgeable adult. So naturally you go out and buy every possible cold medicine that's out there is because you think you know what is best. "So I'll take DayQuill now and then later tonight to be able to sleep I'll take Mucinex D so I don't have a coughing fit, oh and I also need to get airborne because I probably need more Vitamin C to get better."
Stage 5: Recovery
You've gone a whole week struggling to get out of bed and coughing up a lung every day when you wake up but you survived! Congratulations, you survived being sick at college. Hopefully, you've learned from this experience and instead of staying up until 3 am every night you'll decide to go to bed early a little more often. I would like to send a special shout out to my bed for helping through this tough time.
And of course, thank you, Mom, for answering all my phone calls about which medicine I should take and when and letting me know that going out that same night probably isn't the best idea. In college, you're bound to get sick a few times so when they tell you that they're giving free flu shots in the library, definitely head on over!
