College: Suddenly Getting Sick is Not Fun

Tyler Powell

It used to be that getting sick meant we got out of going to school for a while and that was great. We knew we wouldn't miss much and it would be easy to catch back up. Since teachers assigned relatively little homework, completing it took merely an hour out of our time. Being sick was like taking a break, where you weren't expected to do much more than get better. Now it's isolation.

According to Dorie Turner, "[Colleges are] trying to stem the spread of the highly contagious swine flu virus amid the almost round-the-clock microbe-swapping behaviors of college students - many of whom are not all that concerned about the impending bug." Oregon State University is encouraging its students to isolate themselves and prevent themselves from spreading the sickness.

Isolation is very hard to deal with while living in a traditional dorm. You can't go get your own food so you have to eat whatever junk food you have laying around or payoff your neighbors to bring you something back, which is always risky. Also, knowing that class is not that far from your dorm makes it harder to keep from going when you know your so far behind and you think your getting better. Isolation keeps you away from your friends, and makes you very lonely. The best thing to do is to go home and have someone else take care of you for a little while.