All my life, I’ve had faith that I would be able to survive a zombie apocalypse. I’ve watched a bunch of movies and based on those movies (and online quizzes, of course), I was completely certain that I would never succumb to any kind of sickness. I’d even discussed plans with friends about what would be the best course of action during such a situation. Clearly, I was prepared for anything that would come.
These past few weeks have shown me that I was probably completely wrong.
During orientation week, a bunch of people on my floor got sick. My friends were coughing and sniffing all over the place, but as the sickness seemed to pass through them one by one, I never experienced it. Of course, I had to get all cocky about it. My sick friends would come to my room and hang out, and when they expressed concern about me getting sick because of them, I responded jokingly, “Don’t worry about me, I’m immune.”
You can probably see where this is going.
The next week, when everyone seemed to be over this illness, I got it. At first it was okay, and I was certain that it would pass within a few days as I had seen it do for others. But I probably made fate angry or something, because one day I felt a sudden pain in my ear, and it just wouldn’t go away. Luckily, Health Services was open and not busy, so I just stopped by and was told that I now had an ear infection (!!!!) and was prescribed some antibiotics.
At this point, I was cautiously optimistic. I felt positive that these antibiotics would cure me of my pain and I was right; it quickly got rid of the pain in my ears. Of course, I still had a persistent itch in my throat, but I could feel it getting better each day. It was the worst at nights, because for some reason when my mind is trying to rest, my throat thinks it’s a great time to start coughing up a party. Regardless, at the end of the 10 days of antibiotics, I almost felt completely fine.
But then the next day, my throat felt sore again. I prayed that this would just be a cold that I could be rid of within two days, but it just got worse. And yet again, I was coughing up a storm. Flash forward a week and here I am, still coughing every five seconds and gulping down water and cough drops like my life depends on it.
So basically, thanks to college, I’ve realized that in the case that there is a viral infection going around and turning people into zombies, I probably would not survive for very long; I’d probably be the one who gets sick first and then accidentally infects everyone.