After a short, healthy month, I have finally been hit with my first college plague. As I am writing this in my dorm room, trying to recover from a 103.9 degree fever and an excruciatingly painful sore throat, I have learned a few things on how to cope with this unfortunately inevitable canon event.Â
The first thing I have come to learn (which I never truly grasped until now) is how important it is to stay hydrated when you are sick. The first few days of this affliction, I couldn’t drink too much because my throat felt like I had swallowed a cactus; but once I was able to (shout out to Holy Cross Health Services for the advice), my fever went down 5 degrees within an hour and a half. Also, my appetite came back, which is great because I missed the dining hall ice cream.
The next thing I learned is just how much the people you’ve chosen as friends matter. I am lucky enough to have found a group of people who have constantly been showing me kindness and comfort, bringing me tea and Tylenol, and FaceTiming me for laughs and lunches — all the while not worrying (at least not too obviously) of catching this sickness themselves. All of their efforts have made the last few days a bit more bearable and made my first illness away from home so much easier than it might have been without them.
Finally, this dreadful illness has reminded me to take care of myself, take time off, and focus on getting better. I have two exams this week that I had been studying for and stressing about. With my almost concerningly high fever, I sat at my desk trying to memorize parts of the brain and their functions while also studying seven different theologians and the relationships between their ideologies. However, I realized I wasn’t actually absorbing any content. It is vital to remember that your professors are people too, and they understand that things in life happen. After a few quick emails, I felt at peace knowing I could take three separate naps in one day, hydrate properly, and not feel guilty about giving my body the time I needed to get better
So now, six weeks into my freshman year as a Crusader, I feel lucky to have learned some valuable lessons about myself, my friends, and my health. And now I hope that when you, unfortunately, get stricken down by some rapidly spreading virus, you’ll have a think about my own experiences to make yours a bit easier.