The Bowdoin Orient

December 8, 2000
Volume CXXXII, Number 12

Stay healthy these last few days, germs are for losers

by BEN GOTT - COLUMNIST

   I am an email junkie. I email people all the time. Last March, when I was on vacation in Florida, I went into such withdrawal that I ended up checking my email in the Atlanta airport, instead of waiting the three hours until I got home. Don't ask me why, because I can't explain it.
   That's why I found it particularly strange that, between December 12 and December 15 of last year, I sent one email. My usual output is something like ten or twelve a day, but those three days in December...only one. Why did I stay off the computer, you ask? Did I find some secret cure? Emailaholics Anonymous, perhaps? Believe me: if I had, I'd market it to college students and would become rich. No, what kept me off email last December wasn't my resolve, or my self-control...It was the flu.
   The day before reading period ended, I got sick. Really sick. I had never gotten the flu before, but I most certainly had it now. I was miserable: coughing, runny nose, aches. My temperature was 101, but I spent most of my time shivering. Every joint in my body felt as if it were on fire. I had no desire to get up to eat. My hair hurt. It was horrible.
   Of course, I thought to myself, this had to happen before exams! I had been able to complete two of four final projects, but still had a Bio paper and an English final ahead of me. There was no way, I thought, that I'd be able to work, study, or function, as ill as I was.
   But, somehow, I made it through. Mike Palopoli gave me an extension, and I miraculously managed to drag myself up to the Mass Faculty Room for Ann Kibbie's final. (If you think the Mass Faculty Room is swelteringly hot and uncomfortable when you're not sick, try going up there with a fever!) I don't remember writing my English exam, but I do remember that I had segregated myself off at my own table, water bottle and Kleenex in hand. The course was entitled "Eighteenth Century Drama," but I have no idea whether or not I wrote about drama. I could, for all I knew, have written about cows. When I handed my exam to Professor Kibbie, all I could think of was, "Thank God that's over!"
   Unfortunately, though, it wasn't over. I still had to pack up my room, hand in my Bio paper, drag all of my stuff out to the car, and drive the five hours to my house. Again, I can't remember much of the drive, except for my extreme distress when I hit Wilbraham, MA (Home of "Friendly's"), and realized that I still had two and a half hours to go. When I finally pulled into my driveway, I left all of my bags in the car and went straight up to bed. Three days of rest and recuperation at home meant no more flu (although I did have laryngitis for five days), and, come New Year's, I finally felt like myself again.
   So this year, I have promised myself that I will stay healthy. I've been taking my vitamins and my blue-green algae, drinking "Super Juice," and getting lots of rest. But I can't shake the feeling that, even though I'm trying my best, I'm still going to get something. This place is a breeding ground for illnesses and, even if I don't catch something here, I might catch it somewhere else. Last Wednesday, I babysat; by the weekend, both of my charges were sick with some horrific flu. I work with eighth graders up in Richmond, and with elementary schoolers here in Brunswick, and I can't help but wonder what kinds of diseases I'm being exposed to on a daily basis.
   When I was home over Thanksgiving, I made my dad give me a flu shot. (Don't worry - he's a doctor.) I'm determined to nip this thing in the bud, and to stay healthy. If you haven't gotten a flu shot yet, I have only one question: what are you waiting for? Being sick sucks, and being sick at Bowdoin sucks even more, so do anything you can to ward off illness. Sleep, eat well, drink lots of fluids...you know the drill. Our infectious spirit is best reserved for hockey games, not for each other.