After four months of carefully avoiding any places, people, or situations imminent of germs and all things threatening my immediate health (minus school, cause I couldn’t really avoid that), I am afraid it has finally happened. The germs, the stress, life in general, has caught up with me and struck me down. For the first time since surgery, I have gotten sick.
It started Tuesday afternoon after the pep assembly, (which, by the way, was the first one I have been able to attend all year!) when I was greedily consuming some delicious ice cream with my boyfriend when the tasty, creamy, goodness began to bother my throat; it was so sweet that it had seemed to actually be making my throat sore. I was a little flabbergasted, and really just confused that such a thing could even happen, but I kept on eating it because, let’s be honest here, nobody passes up a chance for ice cream. It continued to bother me a little, but I thought nothing of it.
Later that evening I was engaging in some relaxation time when my mom commented on my paleness, asking if I felt okay. When I looked in the mirror, I was a bit frightened at the sight before me, realizing I had regressed back to my days of translucency and ghostlike appearance that was so characteristic immediately succeeding surgery. Taking note of my more extreme feeling of tiredness that had plagued me the past couple of days, the headaches that had seemed to sneakily creep up and return, and the achy and shaky feelings I just could not quite seem to get rid of, it all made sense. And with my elevated temperature, I realized the inevitable had finally become reality.
Taking the next two days off of school to rest, my fever ended up breaking yesterday morning. Although my throat is still a bit sore and the headache is still present, I believe the worst of whatever this little virus is has left my body. Due to the strenuous two weeks I have had this week and the week ahead of me, I’m thinking it may have not even been a true virus at all, merely just a case of exhaustion and a warning from my body to stop and just take a breather. For those of you who are not aware, this week marks one of the biggest weeks in all upperclassmen’s school year: the week of prom. Immediately succeeding this eventful and unforgettable time are the beginning of AP tests, the first of which starts this following Monday. In other words, it is a mixture of the best/worst weeks of your entire high school career, all joyously combined into one.
This is one of the times when I question if the school administrators and teachers nationwide plan all this out just to see how far they can push us until we finally break. Being with my more unique case, I have had to take extra precaution to make sure I reserve enough energy to enjoy myself on Saturday, while still savoring enough vigor to last me through a four-hour test on Monday, but evidently I have not prepared myself well enough, for I am already falling a bit behind healthwise. I’m eagerly looking forward to this weekend though, and oddly enough, AP tests as well, for as soon as those are over I am pretty much done with the school year.
Although my body has told me to slow down and is putting up a bit of a challenge, I think I’ll make it through just fine in this next week or so, and even if I don’t get to stay out as late as I would like with my friends or jump around with them (my friend’s mother owns a gymnastic place which we reserved for the evening to be crazy and act like never-ending balls of spontaneity that little kids so perfectly embody), or even perform as well as I hope to on the upcoming tests, I have so much to be grateful for and have made such unbelievably amazing progress it’s not that big of a deal to me anymore.
With less than a month left of high school, I have found it is time to just sit back and enjoy the ride. I’m going to do what I can, appreciate what I’ve got, and make the most of every moment presented to me. Whatever happens from there, happens. The big things have become the little things, and the little things more of the big things. My focus now is just to make it all count. And hopefully, it will all turn out for the best.
