Besides hospitals, college dorms may be the biggest breeding ground for germs there is. Hundreds of people from all over the world are thrown together in a very “cozy” living situation, just waiting to infect each other with the germs they brought from their part of the country or world. What does this deathly combo of germs create? Eternal sickness your freshman year.

Speaking from personal experience, I have currently been sick for about a month with basically no end in sight. Any symptom you can think of, I’ve had it. I’m almost positive I haven’t been sick with just one virus though, but a combo of multiple things that has turned into one super cold. But I’m not the only one experiencing this perpetual nightmare, both my roommates and all my friends have experienced or are still experiencing this plague. In the dorms, there is no escape or refuge, as you walk down the hallway to the bathroom you can hear a symphony of coughs and sneezing just waiting to infect you. So now that we’ve established you’re likely going to get sick at some point during your freshman year, how do you deal with this? Back home we had mom or dad to make us soup, take us to the doctor and call us in sick to school, but now we are facing this sickness on our own.

All my classes have a three-absence attendance policy, which basically means after you miss three classes your grade will begin to drop because of it. These absences count for basically anything, except if you are literally in the hospital or had an extreme emergency. So sadly your pesky cold doesn’t work as an excuse. So while you are trying to fight your cold and the exhaustion that comes with it, you still have to drag yourself out of bed and make the trek to your painful 8 a.m. class. While I could be sleeping trying to alleviate my cold and get better, I have to go to class where I will excessively cough, sneeze and blow my nose just so my grade won’t drop. If you consider the fact that you have to do this with all your classes, there is never any time to rest, which is exactly what you need when trying to get over a sickness. The continual exhaustion of trying to keep up with your normal schedule while still fighting a cold is likely what leads to the never-ending cold that will haunt you for over a month.

Now, once you get to the point where you realize you need to go to the doctor, a whole new problem arises. First of all, making an appointment that won’t conflict with classes or other commitments is nearly impossible because the one time you have free of course is the time they have no appointments available. You’ll likely have to compromise an activity or use one of those precious three absences to make your way over to the doctor, a place you don’t want to go to in the first place. I don’t know about everyone else, but my mom always went with me to the doctor and dealt with all the paperwork and such, but obviously our moms can’t fly to San Francisco just to take us to the doctor. So on top of being sick we have to navigate insurance cards and prescriptions and other questions we might not know the answers to, and end up leaving the doctor even more exhausted than when we walked in.

The most notable discovery I’ve noticed about being sick in college though is the absence of the support system of your family. Back home when I was sick my mom pulled out all the stops. She made my favorite food for me, forced me to rest even if I didn’t want to, reminded me to take my medicine and drink plenty of water, and overall just be there when I wasn’t feeling like my usual self. In college that is all stripped away. There’s no more made to order food, you have to walk up cardiac hill and likely have a cough attack just to get some subpar food that you can’t even taste. No one is there telling you to take your five different medicines at all different times during the day. You have to be an adult and actually remember things for yourself. Roommates are of course understanding when you’re sick, but they have their own lives too, and can’t drop everything just to play mom for a few days. While it is really hard not having your mom there to take care of you when you’re sick, it does give you a taste of what it’s like to be sick when you have an actual job and life and can’t put everything on hold.

Being sick the past month has over all been an extremely horrifying experience, yet it has taught me a few things about myself. For example, I can actually manage the doctor by myself and, yes, I can figure out when to take my pills on my own. Being sick for the first time away from home is just a step to becoming a self-sufficient adult, but I will still always miss my mom’s homemade chicken soup and the ability to completely disregard all my responsibilities when the plague ultimately strikes.