Everyone knows how terrible it is to be sick; that awful feeling when you realize you are getting a fever or your throat is getting sore, or your head starts to ache. It is dreadful and no matter how many pills you try to throw back to prevent it, sometimes an illness is inevitable.
But while being sick in general is no walk in the park, being sick at college can be particularly shitty for a multitude of reasons...
1. You are utterly alone.
When you are sick at college, there is no mommy there to take care of you. No adult figure to take your temperature, give you the exact medicine you need, cook for you and kiss your forehead before you pass out in a sickly daze. Instead, you are scarily alone and you have to fend for yourself in this dark world. Even if you want to get help from a medical professional, you have to drag your coughing ass all the way to the student health center, just to figure out what is even wrong with you. And it is not like your roommate is any help either when they are sick too and you are probably the one who caused it. It’s depressing.
2. Everyone is a walking virus.
While I mentioned the fact that both roommates getting sick is a common affair, that is not the only place that germs are spread. You might think that you are healthy, but then you walk through your dorm and get wheezed on by a bunch of red-nosed hallmates who are suffering from a range of viruses. College is the worst place to attempt to recover from a sickness because germs are spread like wildfire, and while most people might have tried to keep good hygiene when they were back at home, all of that has been thrown away when they come to college. Each time you step foot in the bathroom, your chances of becoming infected with dysentery rise higher and higher.
3. The party animal inside of you cannot break through.
I think that everyone has a little bit of FOMO within themselves, and this is elevated when you come to college. So, when you are sick and you have to watch all the Snapchat stories of your friends climbing on tables, chugging Burnett’s, and dancing in a dirty house, a part of you is really sad knowing that you are missing it. Granted, whatever parties you miss will probably occur just the same during the next weekend too. However, we only get four short years to throw caution to the wind and experience a wild, college lifestyle, so the thought of having to miss a single second of watching your friends drink too much and fall down a hill is a heartbreaking one.
4. Your level of motivation is at zero.
Being sick in public school is a very different experience than being sick during college. While you could just miss school for a couple days, bring in a doctor’s note, and get the notes you missed from the teacher, being absent from class in college is a whole new ballgame. It feels like every course you take moves at a mile a minute and if you miss a single one, then you just get further behind. But forget trying to keep up with the work from the comfort of your bed, because when you are stuck in your room, surrounded by a TV, laptop, phone, and plenty of other distractions, the position paper you have to complete by Monday is not going to get done. At the time, the nap feels way more important than the grade does.
5. Your meals are limited to soups.
You think that pizza that your friend ordered looks good, don’t you? Well, your stomach is going to disagree with you when you scarf down 5 slices and then you wake up at 3 am and you vomit them all up. Willpower is needed constantly at college because it seems that greasy, fattening, and heavy foods are around every corner. Avoiding these foods is especially difficult when you are sick because you know that you should be sticking to chicken noodle soup and maybe one slice of white bread, but the cinnamon rolls your friend buys, or the nachos your RA is making look so appealing that you might just dive in and pay the price later.
6. You look like garbage.
You may think that you regularly don’t care how you look when you go to classes when you throw on some sweatpants, a baggy t-shirt, a jacket, and go on your way. But, when you’re sick, “casual” takes on a whole new meaning. You roll out of bed, throw on whatever you find, and crawl to wherever you need to go until you can happily return to your bed. In the good ole’ days, when you were sick you could hide from all your friends in the comfort of your home, but that is no longer the case. Now, even when you want to have a meal, you have to leave your room and let everyone stare as you appear like a blind person dressed you and your body has been dragged through the pits of hell.
7. Human contact is erased.
Oh sure, your friends love you now, but the second you start showing signs of sickness, they will keep their distance and treat you like a leper until you show them medical proof you are 100% healthy. While it is understandable that no one else wants to get sick, feeling like a bubble boy is not fun at all, and it makes the experience of being sick even worse. Also, don’t even think that your significant other is going to kiss you while you are sick. They might give you a friendly hug or a pat on the shoulder, but your sex life is dead until you are healthy. And if you are single, then being sick makes your chances of finding someone that much slimmer.
8. You are very grumpy.
When all of these factors come together, it is hard not to get angry. All you want to do is get better, but it feels like the environment is working against you, and when one of your friends does something stupid, you might accidentally lash out because you feel so terrible. However, you have to try to smile and look happy even though you feel dead inside, and you just hope that the sickness will go away as quickly as possible.
I hope everyone is healthy soon so that final exams will go swimmingly and then we can all have a happy and healthy winter break.
