The Dorm Plague

There is no way to escape it. The dorm plague is everywhere, and you could be next.

We’re about six weeks into school and things are going great. You know where all of your classes are, you’ve made friends on your floor and you have discovered the ups and downs of living on your own. Everything is fine…until you hear that first cough (insert crowd running away screaming). It seems as if the whole campus is sick. Everyone is aware that there is something going around this time of year, but it’s not just the common cold, it’s a straight-up plague.

For many students, this is their first time living close to so many different people. This is not a new theory, but it may be one’s first confrontation with the effects of dorm living. That is where it all starts: the dorms.

Living close together, sharing bathrooms, sharing food and sharing air…sickness is a domino effect that lingers on forever. As one person starts to feel better, another gets worse. There is the saying, “If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is around, does it make a sound?” That question may never be answered, but the current Kent State sound is the echo of coughs across campus.

It all starts with the roommate, and if living in a small rectangle wasn’t bad enough, add coughing and sneezing to the mix. If your roommate gets sick, no questions asked, you are the next target. The “Plague” then makes its way to your neighbors and then to the whole floor. You can almost picture the ripple starting, like the wave in a stadium. Next thing you know, you get the joy of sitting near someone in class who is coughing up a lung, or that person may be you. Nevertheless, the constant coughs and hacks are the immune system’s way of saying, “you’re next.” The “Plague” is like an on-again, off-again relationship: you may think that things are getting better, but it just comes back to bite you in the ass.

• dorm
• Kent State
• sick