Greetings
my fellow freshies, newbs, young bloods – I am here to talk about a very
serious and very real problem happening up on North that concerns us all.
That’s right. The ~freshman
plague~ has come for us. We were all warned about it before move-in, and now
that we’ve been here for a little over a month and temperatures are starting to
change, the time has come. The germs are circulating. Personally, I’ve been
suffering for almost two weeks from an absolutely disgusting cough and terrible
congestion. Oh yeah, and I had bronchitis. AIN’T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR DAT!
But what else would we expect? Most of us have never lived like this before: shared bathrooms, communal living spaces, and of course, the dining halls. Can you even imagine what’s left behind after thousands of hacking, snot-dripping, lacking-a-good-hand-washing students have made their way through RPCC or Appel, using the same utensils and inevitably getting their germs on the same food you’re about to eat?
I’m
sure we’ve all noticed that the great majority of our peers have contracted
some sort of illness over the past few weeks. It’s hard to miss, especially
when lectures are continuously clouded by a classmate’s coughing fit in the background,
or when we’re hearing sneezes walking down the hallway. Somehow, no matter how
hard we’ve tried to stay healthy and take care of ourselves in this new
environment, these lousy viruses seem to find their way into our systems
anyway.
For
some, it may be easy enough to just pop some Advil or a cough drop and carry
on. But for others (like myself, unfortunately) whatever this sickness is has
us bedridden all weekend. And that, my friends, is just plain unacceptable.
If you are a lucky one and seem to have no idea what I’m talking about, keep on keepin’ on. If you are currently down and out: my deepest sympathies; I feel your pain. Here are a few helpful reminders to all us newbs to keep each other healthy:
- Wash. Your. Hands. As. Much. As. Possible
2. If you aren’t near a sink, hand sanitizer always works too! Look, Amazon has these cute little hangy things that you can put right on your backpack. That’s a pretty sick deal if I do say so myself:
https://www.amazon.com/3909-09-ECSC-Advanced-Sanitizer-Portable-Bottles/dp/B01BOWFQTW/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1537239644&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=hand%2Bsanitizer%2Btravel%2Bsize&th=1
3. Don’t be afraid to put away your homework for the night and go to bed at a decent hour. Maybe even before midnight!
4. Take a break from the gym. Our daily walk to class is good enough.
5. Try a vegetable or two at dinner, just for good measure. (I have to say the salad bars here are top-notch.)
6. Get a flu vaccine! Here is the link for the schedule of clinics across campus: https://health.cornell.edu/services/medical-care/annual-flu-vaccination
7. And last but not least, PLEASE DO NOT COUGH OR SNEEZE INTO YOUR HAND!! At least do it into your elbow, it needs to be used for something anyway.
