It's that time of the year when most of your college campus is probably sick with the freshman plague. Classes are filled with sporadic coughs and quiet sniffles, and it's virtually impossible to concentrate during lectures and tests as a result. Never fear, because if you're one of many college students (me included) affected by illness during this time of the year, I have a few helpful tips for you.
Remember that taking care of yourself is your first priority.
GiphyBecause it's a few weeks into the semester, our homework, tests, and extracurricular activities are starting to pick up. It's easy to begin to lose sleep over assignments and tasks on your to-do list, but remember that your first priority is your health. Make that trip to CVS to get the medicine that will help you get better (I know I should have listened to this). Personally, I've been neglecting to take care of my health because of the lack of sleep I'm getting, but I'd really encourage everyone not to do this.
Let your professors know about what's going on.
Something I wish I told myself more is that it's okay to miss some classes if you don't feel healthy enough to attend. There have been some classes that I'll go to even though I'm really sick, and I'd interrupt the class with blowing my nose and obnoxious coughs the whole time. I think everyone would have agreed that it would have been better for me to stay in my room for the day to recuperate. Let your professors know if you're missing class and kindly ask them for an extension if needed--however, it depends on the professor for how lenient they are with sickness. If you miss a class, request a meeting with them when you're better so they can catch you up on any material you missed.
Pay a visit to the university health center.
If you're sick for a prolonged period of time, consider checking in with your health center. It's normal for us college students to not know exactly what to do when we have a serious sickness, and it's those trained professionals' jobs to provide us with any advice or medication.
Be prepared wherever you go.
Wherever you are on campus, don't be afraid to rock a travel pack of Kleenex tissues or Halls cough drops to make your symptoms a little bit more bearable. People in my classes know that I've been carrying around a full-size tissue box to my classes, so in other words, I've embraced my sickness.
Catch up with your family back home.
Everyone knows how sickness can make you physically exhausted, but people seldom talk about mental exhaustion. I feel like my brain can't operate properly because my body and immune system is spending all of my energy fighting my sickness. To combat this, I've been making time to call my family back home
