As we are all anxiously awaiting the spring weather that is just around the corner, there still is some cold and snow that we have to bear through. When it’s cold outside and everyone is stuck inside, there are bound to be a few bacteria floating around. Stand near someone who seems to be coughing a little excessively and two days later you are coughing excessively with a fever and runny nose. Don’t believe me? Ask anyone who has ever been to any type of school or my teammates.
This past week, a few of my teammates were tested positive for Influenza. As teammates, we spend a LOT of time together. I knew I was bound to get sick. My only hope was that it would be after my trek to three District Review Nights, as riding in cars while being sick is definitely not fun.
I get sick extremely easily. Even at the slightest temperature change, my allergies can act up and I am a sneezing-mess for the next two days. Because of this, I was used to just toughing it out and going along with my life. Ask my mom, I never went to the doctor throughout High School. That’s an hour out of my day that I just didn’t have, especially when I can just stop at the nearest Target and buy out their allergy medicine and cough drops. Even when I would get the Stomach Flu, I would just head into school and duck into the bathroom when necessary. The same went for work, FFA events, Speech, basically everything. My mom never got sick days at work, so I figured if she could do it I could too.
This definitely is not the best option. On Saturday, Elisa Russ (State President) and I were headed back from Northwest District Review night and I could feel the sickness starting to set in. Throughout the day, I had gone through the equivalent of three boxes of tissues and been coughing up a storm. Elisa dropped me off in front of my dorm and I called my mom to brainstorm a game plan of how to fight the incoming illness. My mom proposed I could get medicine and then just rest up before I got busy again.
Rest up? What does that mean? I don’t think I had ever really just “rested” while I was ill. I had a few things I could have been doing, but they weren’t really necessary. So I decided to take her advice. For the next two days I slept, took DayQuil, answered just a few emails, and watched Netflix. It was wonderful. It helped me stay stress free and kick the illness before I had to get back to life again, much unlike my high school self. I really just needed that day to get back into gear.
In this day and age, everyone is always busy. We all have one thing after the other and practically no time to take a break. Whether you’re a parent, student, FFA member, employee, or anything really you often just “power through” anything that comes in between you and your busy schedule. This can be a sickness, issues outside of your work, or even just needing to take a break and chill out.
We all have important things going on in our lives, however we all need to take a minute so we can fully commit ourselves to those things. We may think that we don’t have time, but we need that minute of stepping aside in order to do our best in whatever important things we are working on. Stressed about an upcoming test? Take a short break in studying and walk outside and call your friend. Stressed about an upcoming event? Devote ten minutes of your day to just sitting and relaxing. Have some family issues come up a day before a presentation? Take the ten minutes to talk it out rather than letting the issue continually get worse.
There are so many ways that we can better handle our busy schedules than just “powering through”. Take that extra minute to take care of yourself and you’ll be able to help others and live a better life all around. Even if that means taking a full day off to fight the flu and catch up on Netflix.
Zach Hamilton
State Reporter
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