Sir Willow's Widsom

"In sickness and in health." If I ever get married my wife will have to get used to the "in sickness" part. Either I have the immune system of a newborn or I have a gravitational pull that only encompasses germs. 

I get sick a lot. I don't know why and I hate it. The congestion, the sore throat, the sneezing and coughing, it's all there. We all want to curl up in bed and sleep for two days straight when we have a cold, but I always feel like having a cold isn't a legitimate enough excuse to skip class or homework.

"Why are you sitting on your butt watching TV when you have a huge test tomorrow?"

"Uhm, I'm sick."

"Ooh no, that sucks, what is it the flu? H1N1? Pneumonia?"

"Uh, no, I have a cold."

…

Colds will knock us down and beat us up. We've all had them; we all know how miserable we become when the full onslaught of the cold takes over. Yet, a cold will hold up as an excuse in very few situations. 

A few weeks ago I caught the Rhinovirus, a fancy name for the common cold. It was bad and I was miserable. Then, last weekend, just when I thought my cold was defeated, I broke out in a fever. This made me nervous, last time I had a fever after a cold it was the result of having bronchitis. I tossed and turned all night. At some points in the night I would wake up freezing cold, so I would pile a bunch of blankets on top of me. Then a few minutes later I would start sweating, so I would take the blankets off. It was a vicious cycle. 

I woke up in the morning with a fever of 100 degrees. Health Services isn't open on the weekend, because most sicknesses on the weekend can be attributed to hangovers. So I panicked and called my mom. She referred me to some Immediate Care centers in the area, but I was skeptical about going. Whenever I get sick I always second-guess myself as to the severity of the infliction. So I took an Advil and decided to wait until later in the day to take my temperature again. If I was still feverish I would go. 

So I waited a few hours. I don't know if it was just the Advil but I started to feel better. I took my temperature and it had dropped down to 99 and since I felt better I decided to devote my weekend to doing, naturally, absolutely nothing. 

Wait, isn't it supposed to be the other way around? If I feel better I should be doing stuff. Well, I didn't want to push it. 

As the semester is winding down the homework load is winding up. I should have been doing homework this past weekend. I didn't do any, and I'm paying for it this week. 

Homework is one of the hardest things to motivate yourself to do in college. College students, including myself, will use even the smallest excuse to procrastinate on our homework. Maybe someone commented on my status update in the last five minutes, I'd better check just to get it out of the way. Maybe someone sent an urgent email and if I don't respond in the next 30 seconds I will lose my chance to inherit millions of dollars, I better check just to make sure. Oh the Colbert Report is on, I can't concentrate knowing that it's on, I might as well watch it. 

There are a million excuses not to do homework. The key is to find an excuse to do homework. 

Homework is not just busywork pushed on us by professors. Homework forces us to learn material that we need in the job world. After all that's why we are all here. Obviously its good to do homework to keep up in your classes, but it also teaches you responsibility to meet deadlines and to take pride in your work. Homework goes away after college, but the concept stays.