It’s barely into the second week of school, and I’m sick…again. For me this is very reminiscent of the beginning of freshmen year when I developed a cough, sore throat, fever, and stuffy nose early on and thought I’d be able to ride it out. Overestimating my immune system’s abilities, I waited it out for a month, only for it to get worse and for me to end up with walking pneumonia.

This experience has taught me a lot about dealing with illness at college and now that I’m back and it seems that steadily, more and more students are getting sick, I think this issue needs to be acknowledged. I spent a few minutes trying to study in the library today but had to leave as my concentration was thrown off by a student sitting a couple seats down from me incessantly sniveling. Perhaps I’m a little impatient, but I simply cannot handle this specific background noise. After leaving the library, I thought I had fixed my situation only to go to a Life Sciences lecture and have a guy sit down next to me and repeatedly do the exact same thing. Evidently, it’s not just me that is getting sick.

For the rest of the day, I took a mental tally of all the students I noticed that were under the weather. When it came time to actually pay attention, it was an alarming number. However, it is no surprise that one student’s cold can spread to an entire entryway of students. Last night at Brain Break, a noticeably ill student stood in front of me at the chips bowl and instead of using the tongs, decided to grab a few, nibble, and grab some more with her hands. It seems that it is inevitable that you’ll get a cold early on in the year.

Perhaps, this is just a personal gripe, but my immune system is still attempting to fend off my cold and I’m finding it difficult to aid it. Students like myself with early morning sports practices, loads of homework and reading, hours of class, and not to mention a raging social life – it’s difficult to catch up on missed sleep and combat college viruses!