As I write this article, I am sick for the second time in the past three weeks. I had four blissful days of feeling pretty okay, and then all of a sudden I am once again stuffy, sick to my stomach, and all around miserable. Frankly, I don't have time to be ill. I have a swim meet this upcoming weekend, papers to write, exams to study for, you get the gist of it. So, here are my top five tips of how to avoid being sick like I am.

1. Take some Vitamin C

I'm not a big fan of pills, but you can get the chewable gummy versions of these and it's basically like getting to eat candy that helps build up your immune system. Looking back on it I should probably have started taking these in September before everyone got sick. When you go to college you're typically in a new environment, with a new living situation, surrounded by potentially thousands of people who you've never been around in your life before. So yeah, take vitamin C before anyone gets sick to try and build up your immune system.

2. Get lots of sleep

I know, I know, we're college students, sleep is as much of a foreign concept as not having homework to do. But you know what? If you have an hour of free time, treat yo' self and take that power nap. You need all the sleep you can get, especially when we're all cramming for exams and sometimes sleeping just doesn't happen for 36 hours at a time.

3. When you start feeling sick, it's okay to take a break

Once again, I know it's college, but when you try and push through being sick you're just going to burn yourself out quicker. It's okay to ease off your classes and extracurriculars for a few days to focus on getting better. If your classes don't have attendance grades, email your professor about needing to miss because of illness and ask someone in your class if they would be willing to share their notes with you. If your class does count attendance as a grade and it's a large class, ask someone to do you a solid and write your name down on the attendance paper for you.

4. If you have work you need to do, break it up into small sections

I got sick during fall break, which was both a blessing and a curse. I didn't have any additional work being added on, but I did have a lot of stuff I needed to do and it did suck to spend my last day of break doing nothing but going to the Minute Clinic and sleeping. However, when you're sick it is so important to not overdo it when you're trying to get work done. I know you can't just put off work until you start to feel better, because otherwise, you're definitely going to get behind or at the very least become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff you have to do, so micromanage instead. Give yourself an hour to work on a paper; if you feel up to it then write for an additional half hour. If you really aren't feeling it, then at least you got some of your work done, and you can rest for a little bit or work on something else until you're feeling up to it again.

5. Spend the rest of your life in a bubble

I mean, you can't get sick if you aren't in contact with any other people, right?