In middle and high school, I rarely got sick. And if I did, I would still go to school. I would never miss school because I was sick, only if it was really bad and I was throwing up. For some reason, I hated missing school, even if I was sick. Now that I’m in college, I have gotten sick an unreasonably large amount. I have lost count of how many times I have been to the health center. I have lost count of all the antibiotics and prescriptions I have been given. And they’ve all been for different illnesses. I never thought my body was capable getting sick so much like this. So, welcome to college: a cesspool of germs and diseases.

Within the first semester of my college education, I went to the health center many times, and I even made it to the ER. Everyone said that being in a new place was going to warrant new germs, but I never thought it’d be like that. Most of these illnesses were merely bad colds and feverish symptoms.

The ER trip was during the worst cold of my life. I was constantly an emotional mess, I couldn’t breathe out of my nose, my throat hurt, I had a fever, and my head was stuffy. I went to the health center and they told me I had a heart murmur. I had never heard that before, and I took it like any sick person would. I cried and asked what that was. She explained it and told me to go to the ER for further testing. I was at the ER all day and it turned into a very tiring Sunday.

Just last semester, I was doing fine until the week of finals. I almost made it through the semester illness-free, but then I had to say something about not having been sick yet, and I got sick. It wasn’t that bad of a cold, it just happened to be during finals, so all I wanted to do was stay in bed all day and sleep. This spring semester is three weeks in, and the Monday night of the first week, I got pinkeye and another really bad cold. This was my first time getting pinkeye, and I somehow managed to spread it from my infected eye to my uninfected eye. It was a fun week-and-a-half.

So, moral of the story: you may think your immune system is top-notch and “you’ve never been sick before,” think again.

You will get sick when you get to college.

It’s not something people like, it’s just something that you have to deal with. You may not want to go to the health center, but you’ll thank yourself if you muster up the courage and make the appointment. You’re going to want your mom to be with you, believe me I have every single time I’ve been sick, but you need to learn that she’s not always going to be taking care of your runny noses and high fevers.

Just remember that you’re growing up and you need to make these choices to better your health and to make the doctor’s appointments.