It follows. And by ‘it’, we mean viruses. It seems as though these days everyone and their mother is sick: you, your friends, classmates, professors and professors’ kids. Granted, if you’re lucky then the ladder examples may mean a couple of cancelled classes which everyone loves, but that’s not the point we’re looking to make here.
This semester has proven to be one of many illnesses, with the local urgent care center sending students back reporting over 20 different types of sicknesses floating around our campus. On top of being sick already being a miserable experience, recovering at college is a feat that is next-to-impossible. With schoolwork constantly flowing in, your social life offering different fun opportunities each day, and the lack of sleep that results as a combination of the two, speedy recoveries are hard to come by.
It’s a terrible feeling when you realize the virus has struck you; it starts as a simple sneeze or two, then you feel a lump in your throat, your forehead starts to heat up and before long you’re unsure if you can even make the simple trek to A-quad for class tomorrow. What’s even worse than being sick is falling behind on your classwork.
Most teachers are fairly understanding of sickness, but some make life difficult by asking for a note from Whisler. This can be extremely frustrating because when you are sick all you want to do is lay in your bed all day, drink tea, and sleep. The last thing you want to do is walk over in the freezing cold to convince Whisler that you are in-fact sick, and that you need a note.
Denison is a residential campus and while this comes with lots of perks like living down the hall from your best friends, an instant source of food always being at the most ten minutes away paired with a tight-knit community contributes to frequent passings of colds. Everyone is touching the same doors, walking through the same halls coughing and sneezing in the same airspace. (We just made ourselves shudder… apologizes to fellow germaphobes for the cringe).
It is a wonder that we don’t have more epidemics on this campus. Whisler is always booked full with cases of the flu and the common cold during this time of the year that we weren’t shocked in the least when the student body received the warning email about the flu cases. We want to commend Whisler for all that they do to try to care for our Denison community.
Everyone can do their part to combat this issue of campus sickness. It’s inevitable that people are going to catch colds during this time of year, but we have a simple answer that can go a long way in preventing widespread sickness: stay home when you’re contagious! Do yourself (and everyone else!) a favor and avoid coming to class and contaminating your peers when you’re sick.