So this year for my Valentine's Day, I got a nice date with strep throat. The thing is, I don't really remember a day freshman year in college dorm life where I truly felt healthy, rid of that little sniffle or that occasional cough. Relatable? This happens to many. The constant school work, classes, and late night procrastination freak-out nights wear down your immunity. Not to mention the parties, late night roommate conversations and eating a large amount of very cheesy and unhealthy foods will probably lead to you getting SICK.

Except, in college, the colds you get never ever go away. When your roommates get a cold, then you know you're doomed. Or sometimes your boyfriend or girlfriend will get it, and you'll be back and forth battling the same illness for weeks together. You know you're a freshman at college when the campus doctor knows you by name. The health services will become your new best friend! In my old dorm, the ventilation for the AC was covered in mold. I wondered every day why I coughed so darn much and got bronchitis every other week, well I finally figured it out. While your immune system is already lagging, you're surrounded 24/7 with other kids that are going through the same unhealthy habits. You're all just kind of rubbing off your unhealthiness on each other, so, therefore, your cold never goes away. You are bound to have one friend that will be sick when you finally get over a cold. So should you just give up? No, it will go away eventually I promise.

The all time worst thing about getting sick is all the things you get to miss out on. Like parties, holidays, dinners and most of all TESTS. Yep, you get to miss class if you're sick. But WHY would you want to do that?! In high school, you'd miss a week and you'd be fine. In college you look down at your shoes for two minutes and your teacher has gone from 1+1 to "we have a pop quiz right now on calculus theory." That's why freshman year when you're laying in bed being sick, panic sets in, and then next thing you know you're staying up all night trying to catch up with all the work you missed in those blessed hours. Same goes for skipping classes purposely. You miss one class and you walk in the next day to the teacher handing out tests you didn't know about. On top of being sick, while you're dying in bed, you no longer have your parents to be at your call. Pretty soon you'll realize you're on your own with your sickness and you'll notice people will purposely start avoiding you and your germs.

Once no one is caring for you, and you're receiving emails about your permanent zeros on missed assignments, you'll realize being sick isn't too fun anymore.

Being sick does stink, but it's honestly part of the college experience. Now that I'm a sophomore and live in a house, I have Germ-X everywhere because of my past memories of sick days. Keep eating healthy, exercise, be clean, take showers every day please and sleep lots (that's easy). If you do this, you'll be set and won't be me right now at four in the morning after a week of strep making up for all the work that I missed!