Lesson 4) Clean is a Relative Term

Allow me to introduce a concept to you. Hall-wide bathrooms. No ladies- you're not out of this. It turns out, in college, girls are just as gross, possibly GROSSER than boys. Insert shudder here, as I let you come to your conclusions as to what girls may do to a hall bathroom. I'm asking you to not be one of those people that apparently does not know how to flush a toilet.  

Here's how you know that things are not as clean as they were back home. There will come a time of about three weeks where you will be sick. Three weeks- straight. Why? Well, for one, your mom isn't there feeding you medicine to make you feel better. For two, once your immune system is busy with something else, it's easier for another germ to attack. Your body is make antibodies as fast as it can to get rid of the first disease, and that's a tiring practice. Then you add on another germ on top of that one, and welcome to cough-syrup hell. There are more than two germs in your dorm room the moment you step into it. Then let's add up the fact that you're now living closer to more people than you ever have before (unless you are transferring from some tiny African village, which is totally wicked and feel free to skip this lesson). Plus that these people don't have their moms around either to tell them to take a vitamin, don't eat that, don't touch that railing, and go wash your hands for dinner. Pretty much- your immune system is SCREWED.  

My first time being sick was terrible. I wanted soup, but I didn't want to leave the dorm to GET the soup, nor did I really want to exist with all the yuck that was going through my body. In high school, you can skip a day or two and life isn't too terrible. Not so in college. You miss that one day and of COURSE that's the one day the professor gives out the topic for your term paper. I was lucky and my older brothers had already told me such things, so I stuffed a bunch of tissues in my bag and suffered through class. I was ALSO lucky in that when I returned to my dorm, Erin let me crash in her bed and made me warm ramen.  But, allow me to tell you about Allen. He's the oldest in his family, so he had no one to tell him these rules. When he got sick, he stayed away from class for a good three days and tried to heal up. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm a baby when I'm sick- but three days was a little much. What's worse is that he's a science major, so he missed a bunch of labs as well as lectures. That was back in October. He spent the entire rest of the semester paying for his those sick days. He didn't make his goal GPA, for various reasons, but that struggle didn't help.

I'm not telling you to live like a hermit and wash your hands so much that you start hitting bone, but we have to take care of ourselves these days. There are some "illnesses" that can not be avoided through cleanliness, such as the Saturday Night Stomach Flew and the Sunday Morning Head Cold. However, there are things we can avoid, and you need to do so not only for yourself, but for the people around you. A bad germ can actually effect your entire life now, because yes, we're here to make new friends and have new experiences, but when push comes to shove all those dollars are for us to get an education.

Grab some hand sanitizer, cough into your elbow, and get your FINGER OUT OF MY SOUP!

Curl Girl, out!