What happens when your dedication to your school work interferes with your physical and mental health?
A traumatic experience. That’s what.
The Freshman Plague, while not exclusive to any campus, affects everyone differently, and, depending on the year, is more or less severe. This year, the Freshman Plague seemed to incur a cough, a runny nose and a fever. However, I also know of different freshman in Sharp and Monroe that got strep and the flu so, there were varying degrees.
I got the Freshman Plague Labor Day Weekend. The first real college holiday. So, while everyone else was out partying, I was in bed watching stand-up comedy specials and a slew of Nicholas Spark’s movies. I had hoped that by resting up, my case of “the plague” would clear up by Tuesday when classes resumed. I was wrong. Come Tuesday morning, my body was achey, my cognitive abilities were sub-par at best, and it looked like a train had hit me at full speed ahead. I thought that an absence that early in the semester wouldn’t bode well for the rest of my semester, so like the typical sick and worried student, I went to all my classes that Tuesday.
If you’ve experienced the Freshman Plague any year, you know that this decision was quite possibly one of the worst ones I could have chosen to make. Sure, the school year was barely under way. Sure, I would have absences in my classes. Sure, my professors could’ve thought I was just hungover in my room since it was the Tuesday after Labor Day, but someone’s mental and physical health should ALWAYS be placed before a class, or other overall trivial obligations.
Missing one fifty minute class period is hardly the end of the world. Missing one three hour class period isn’t the end of the world. The end of the world comes when you have a perpetual fever for two weeks because you didn’t take care of yourself in the first place. While my fever was low-grade for two weeks after pushing myself that Tuesday, maybe if my immune system hadn’t been pushed, my cold would’ve gone away much faster.
Moral of the story: Don’t be an idiot. Rest up. Drink water. Take medicine. If it’s that bad, go to the health center. Know that your professors (if they’re decent humans) understand. Yes your parents are paying for you to do well in school here on our lovely campus, but you can’t do well if you feel less than 100%. Keeping care of yourself should alsways be your top priority so don’t feel guilty if you need a day of rest.
Stay lovely, and stay healthy!