I spent about half of my winter break lying in bed, sick as a dog. My throat felt like I had spent the past three days screaming at the top of my lungs between chain-smoking Marlboro Reds, and my chest felt as tight as a screw. I burned through boxes of tissues like there was no tomorrow, and I consumed honey lemon cough drops like they were M&Ms.

It seemed to me like everybody was slowly but surely finding themselves also getting sick over winter break, specifically right around the days before and after New Year’s. I’ve come to learn that this was, in fact, due to a flu outbreak, with a new variant specifically going around and causing an increase in flu cases. Luckily, I somehow managed to avoid the flu. Instead, however, I was struck with one of the worst colds I’ve ever experienced, one that I’m still feeling the effects of as I’m writing this.

At its peak, I tried my very best to push through the illness. I worked three shifts in a row at my part-time bowling alley job rather than calling out. And somehow, some way, I survived. I then, pretty much had an entire week where I had nowhere to be apart from the warm comfort of my bed, playing video games and downing cold medicine, waiting out the disease that had infected my body for far longer than I hoped.

And then I went back to work, roughly about 80% back to normal. And wouldn’t you know, I underestimated the chance of that lingering 20% winning out. I wound up sick all over again, getting sent home 20 minutes before my shift was scheduled to end, pacing the parking lot, and covering myself in snow from the ground in an attempt to lower my body temperature before driving back home and immediately passing out.

This lapse in judgment about my physical well-being resulted in me having to miss my first day of classes this semester. Realistically, the only reason I stayed home last Tuesday was that if I never really got over being sick, I wouldn’t want to risk being around people more than I truly had to, especially considering how often I had already done that.

I wish whoever got me sick with COVID-19 during my first semester at Rowan back in the fall of 2024 had this mentality.

Now, I’m quite aware that it’s much easier to say and a lot harder to do. After all, everybody has places they have to be, and not everyone can afford to take so many days off work or school or something along those lines. I didn’t call out of work when I was battling that godforsaken cold because I really needed the money, and I’m far too set in my ways to ask for help.

It’s a really difficult choice to make. Take the time you need to rest up and feel better physically, or continue to wear your body down by keeping up appearances to the point where you never properly recover from illness and, eventually, your body just gives out.

I’ve gone against this very sentiment so often, and it makes me the biggest hypocrite in the world to say this, probably, but ultimately: your health matters far more than any job or any degree. That goes far beyond just physical health, of course, but your physical health matters just as much.

Money is temporary, and it means nothing if you can’t even get out of bed and function like a proper human being. Not to mention, viruses and diseases tend to spread more easily and survive longer in colder weather, so this is the time of year when it’s especially important to properly nurture yourselves. And if you go out into the world while still contagious with an illness, you’re risking getting others sick. Different viruses affect people in different ways, so you could be especially screwing somebody over in the long run by getting them sick, all because you were too stubborn to stay in bed.

With all of this in mind, if you’re currently feeling a little worse for wear, please don’t push yourself. Take that sick day, take a nap for an hour or two or nine, drink plenty of water, wash your hands, and sanitize them. And please, pretty please, stay home.

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