The first few weeks of freshmen year are awesome- new friends, being away from mom and dad and new experiences. But it also means sharing a bathroom with a few strangers, or maybe a whole floor of them (36 brand-spanking-new bathroom sharers for me.) The freshmen dorm bathroom tends to be the site of some of the nastiest bodily substances, and a breeding ground for germs, so here’s how to handle them.
First things first: you will get sick. You will sneeze and cough and think you are dying because mom is not there to help you. Even if you took care of yourself in high school when you were sick, being away from home makes the symptoms just that much more amplified.
“Fresher’s Flu is what we call it. When everyone goes out every single night and get[s] drunk all the time… it weakens the immune system,” said Suzanne F., a recent graduate from Liverpool John Moore’s University in the UK. “Going out all night and sleeping all day- it messes up the pattern. That’s why everyone gets sick.”
What to do when you think you’re going down for the count? Remember that chances are, you really aren’t, and that there are easy ways to prevent sickness from spreading.
“The best thing you can do is hand hygiene,” said Jaime Fennesy, a registered nurse and certified pediatric nurse. “Do a fifteen second scrub, or sing happy birthday when you’re washing your hands, cover your mouth when you are sick, and stay hydrated.”
“Bring hand sanitizer to class, because touching doorknobs and stuff like that is what spreads it around. Eat healthy, take vitamins, that’s about it,” said University of Central Florida senior Samantha H.
Alyssa B., also a senior at University of Central Florida has more blatant advice.
“Suck it up!”
Image: http://www.rasmussen.edu/student-life/blogs/college-life/avoid-getting-sick-at-college/
