I think we can all agree that being sick is the worst thing ever! No matter how much Vitamin C we consume, how often we wash our hands and if we try our hardest to avoid those infected with germs, we can not escape that icky cold, flu, or sinus infection. You can continue to think that you are going to escape whatever it is that is going around because of the amount of hand sanitizer you have been using, but it’s going to catch you and this is how:

1. How it starts:

All it takes is one person. You may not even know that they have just spent the past week in bed surrounded by an army of snotty tissues and cough drop wrappers, but here you are making some type of physical contact them and their sick germs.

2. The morning of:

There it is, the tickle in the back of your throat. You’re not getting sick, it was just really dusty in your room last night right? The days goes on and then you realize that you still have the tickle in the back of your throat. There is no escaping it now, you have the sickness. That evil person still had their army of snotty tissue germs on their hands and you now have what they have, just worse.

3. Denial:

You have so much going on this week that you really do not have time to be sick and you just made plans for the weekend. You have this really important presentation to give on Wednesday, and on Friday you are supposed to go out with your friends to the new sushi restaurant that just opened. No one is going to pay attention to you once they hear how congested you sound and you can not bring your box of tissues as your purse. No matter how much orange juice you drink and cough drops you eat, there is no getting over this horrible sickness that you got from the person you once called a friend.

4. Acceptance:

It has been three days now, you have gone to class, work and to your social gatherings, but it is just exhausting trying to hid the fact that you are sick. It is now time to call mommy, ask her to make you soup, curl up in bed with your favorite blanket and teddy bear, create your own army of snotty tissues and watch Netflix until you are human again.

5. The end has come:

Finally, you can smell through both nostrils and the tickle in your throat is gone! The gross sickness has finally left your body! You are feeling human again, you can do anything. Throw out your army of snotty tissues and Lysol your entire room because there is no way you are going through that again! Since you are feeling like a new brand new person, you decide to call up the person who gave you the sickness and forgive them even though you still secretly hate them for putting you through all of that torture. Being healthy is a wonderful thing and you promise yourself you will take better care of your body so you do not have to go through that hell again, but we both know that won’t last long.

There is no escaping the icky sickness. We can promise ourselves to lay off the pizza and McDonalds. To drink more water and to exercise more, but we will never truly escape from the cold, flu or sinus infection. Good luck out there my friends!