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Column: So sick
DO YOU HAPPEN to notice that everyone at our school is getting sick? You walk down the hallways and everyone is coughing and sneezing.
The other day in my math class three kids were sharing a pack of tissues, and when the tissues were gone one kid grabbed the package the tissues were originally in and blew his nose into that!
It seems like it's just so easy to get sick at our school, not only because we are such a small school, but also because many of us come into school sick when we really should be sitting at home getting better.
At Uni it's not a big deal to leave a full can of Coke in your locker and come back a few minutes later to notice that half of it is gone. People tend to share food and drinks with each other; it's nothing new. It changes things, though, when someone is coughing, comes up, takes a giant gulp of your drink and then just sets it back in your locker, because it is almost definite that you will come back a few minutes later to take a drink without even knowing where it's been.
There's also the common situation where you're sitting in class, innocently taking notes, and all of a sudden the person behind you starts having a coughing fit. And as uncomfortable as it might be, you can't really avoid getting in the middle of it; there is no doubt that you, too, will be having a coughing fit by the next period.
These kinds of situations tend to happen a lot, and eventually all of your friends come in with red noses and scratchy voices.
Some people really don't mind; they would take any excuse to miss their test the next day. The only problem is that for every class you miss, it seems that the work only piles on. You miss three classes because you went home sick. Well, then when you come back you realize you've missed two quizzes and three homework assignments! Now, when you are in the process of recovering from your cold (when you really should be resting), you're staying up late trying to finish work that you missed.
Yet another difficult situation is when you go to your morning classes, but during lunch you really don't feel well. You call your parents and they drive you home. That night you're still tired, so you spend most of it sleeping and relaxing, but by the next morning you think you feel well enough to go to school.
The problem here? You were present during your morning classes, so there is technically no excuse to not turn in your homework. But you had been sleeping the night before and didn't manage to get any work done! This is why many Uni students don't feel they can miss school even if they are sick!
It starts out small. Afraid that they'll not do any work that night and wake up feeling completely better, many students “take the risk” and just go to school a little more tired than usual. Sooner or later that “small cold” spreads throughout the school and begins to develop into a “big cold.” Now it's a problem.
It's the combination of stress and the closeness of Uni. And it only takes one person to make the whole school sick.
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