When you go away to college, whether that is a few exits away from mom and dad’s house or across the country, the number one fear is that your immune system will fail you. When you used to feel under the weather, mom or dad would swoop in like a magical superhero and make you feel better. You could stay home from school, sleep whenever you wanted to, eat all the soup and crackers that your heart desired, feel all loopy from the cold medicine, and watch any movie you wanted. The moment you moved out and went to college meant that you were your own nurse and basically on your own.
First, you begin to feel gross. You’re tired all the time, your energy levels drop below any form of life and you don’t know if you’re getting sick or you’re just really hung-over from the weekend before. This gives you the perfect excuse to stay in and watch Netflix rather than go out and spend way too much money on whiskey gingers. How is it that you stay up later when you’re just at home than when you’re out with friends?
Then, the symptoms start to kick in. Your nose is constantly running, you’re pretty sure someone has taken sandpaper to your throat while you were sleeping. Your head is clouded and it feels like someone is playing the bass drum in your eardrums. You can’t stand up too quickly without feeling like you’ve been riding a carnival ride for hours.
Then, the denial sets in. You’re not sick. You can’t be sick. There is no time for this. It’s probably just the 24-hour bug and you’ll be better by tomorrow. Take some NyQuil and you’ll feel better in the morning. You’re a grown up and grown ups do not get sick! Dear God, please don’t let me be sick.
But then, you wake up and you feel worse than a morning after in Vegas. Your bed feels better than anything and you can’t bring yourself to get out to even go grab some medicine. You have to use every bit of your strength to get yourself to the doctor’s office. The doctor tells you what you’ve known all along. You are sick.
You finally give in because, well, a medical professional told you so. You could be 22-years-old and practically a grown up but in this moment, you revert back to your seven-year-old state and cannot seem to function on your own. For some reason, you decide that the floor is your best bet and rest and find yourself doing life from there. This is how it ends.
No matter what age, you’re always going to want mom, dad or really anyone to take care of you when you’re not feeling the best. Being a grown up sucks. So be thankful for the times that your mom and dad took care of you because that’s not always going to be the case. They are the greatest nurses and caregivers in the entire world and they do it without much recognition.
