thegradstudent

I fell ill a few hours ago.  Out of nowhere a runny nose and very sore throat punched me in the face.  This may have something to do with the fact that I’ve barely slept this week, but I can’t be sure.  Obviously being sick sucks for everyone (except perhaps for children who love jello, hate school, and are overly coddled) but (remaining on blog topic) there are a few reasons that being sick has gotten worse now that I’m a grad student.  Since I’m currently rather cranky, I’m going to complain about them.

1. There simply isn’t time.  This is actually the crux of most of my life problems at present.  Granted, I didn’t have time to get sick in undergrad either, but the situation has only worsened since entering grad school.  I’m not sure how I’m expected to recover when I won’t get a full night’s sleep until the weekend.  Actually this weekend is ridiculously packed so I’ll have to wait longer. (Why then am I wasting sleep time to write this entry? Excellent question. Apparently I am a masochist. Moving on.)

2.  I can’t skip class. I mean I could if I fell into a coma or carried a disease that was both deadly and communicable. But other than that grad students rarely miss class.  I believe I’ve missed 2 classes during my graduate career (both for necessary travels) and was incredibly loath to do so.  Since classes are almost entirely discussion based you can feel out of the loop for weeks after missing one. It simply becomes not worth it.

3.  I also can’t miss work easily since I chose jobs where other people depend on me, i.e. tutoring.  Also as a grad student I clearly need the money, every single one of those 10 dollars an hour. Hopefully I don’t infect too many people.

4.  There are no mindless tasks that I can complete just as easily while nearly incapacitated.  I feel like I have to be on the top of my game all the time, which is exhausting.  Do you know how difficult it is to decipher Spenser with bleary eyes? I miss Astro 101 math homework that I could do while half asleep.

5.  I’m out of tissues - all 6 boxes that I bought last time I was sick.  That has nothing to do with being a grad student, but it is certainly unfortunate.

6.  Speaking of buying things, coping with a cold is expensive.  Luckily NyQuil is entirely worth the money since I’m addicted to the red flavor.  Seriously, if drinking an entire bottle didn’t make me violently ill red NyQuil would become my alcoholic drink of choice.

Off to grab my bottle and swig my way to symptom-free sleep.  Hoping for a brighter tomorrow…