Avoiding the Plague

Every semester, I consistently get sick far more than any person should ever get sick and it’s really starting to get on my nerves. This week, I decided to post a blog about how not to get sick (as I am currently suffering from an ear infection and a respiratory infection). This is the third time that I have gotten sick this semester and the seventh time this academic year, so I’m pretty sure I know exactly what I should be doing by now.

#1: Sleep: it’s a lot more important than it sounds. Sleep helps regulate the body and keep your circadian rhythm in balance with the natural world. When you start to throw off your internal clock (which actually does exist and you can take an entire class about it!), everything else goes haywire.

#2: Relax: Florida Tech is a very difficult school, no one is disputing that, but relaxation is key. I run myself ragged with research, 20 credit hours, volunteering and extra-curricular activities. Combine that with my lack of sleep and clear lack of an immune system and I’m a virus’s equivalent of a dying antelope on the Serengeti to a pack of lions.

#3: Vitamins: they’re expensive but they definitely help ward off viruses before they rudely attack you in the middle of your midterms. Orange juice and foods that are high in vitamins are also a healthy alternative if you don’t feel like paying for capsulated vitamins.

#4: Ignore your sickly friends: pretend like it’s the zombie apocalypse. I have this habit of not being able to say no when friends need me to take care of them and look at what it gets me! Bring them soup, leave it outside their door, knock and run for your life. Nothing is worse than your best friend getting you sick, I would know. If they need medicine or food, use the same technique as the soup, they’ll appreciate the effort and you won’t spend the next 3 weeks having your lungs try to evict themselves from your body.

Already sick? I feel your pain and it only gets worse. Go to the health center, then stock up on lots of tissues, medicine, fluids, soup and PowerAde. Once you have those staples down, make sure you get a supply of movies or television shows to watch that you never had time for because you were doing homework for your classes. If you got sick from your best friend, make them bring something to cheer you up, even if they just leave it outside of your door. Get lots of sleep, drink lots of fluid, take lots of vitamins and watch lots of mind-numbing television to take your mind off the fact that your body is yelling at you, your face feels like it’s on fire and your lungs desperately desire to see the world from the outside.