I awoke Saturday morning to the sound of my phone going off. I had new e-mail and in my dazed stupor I checked to see what had entered my inbox.
One was a picture of my niece who had just been born 10 hours prior.
The other was an official announcement from the University stating a student had died of bacterial meningitis in St. Mary's hospital early Saturday morning.
The mixed news through me for a loop.
I started to investigate to reacquaint myself with meningitis. We, as college students, were warned of the dangers upon orientation -- but of course this was in a whirlwind of other deadly diseases we were assured would be rare to catch.
As I read down the symptom list, I noticed that the symptoms are concurrent with the flu: high fever, nausea, aching neck, lethargy, etc. They also seem to be comparable to a hangover.
The key to fighting the disease is early detection. Recognizing symptoms right away and getting to the doctor.
But who has time?
Finals week looms at this time of year, and everyone seems to have a head cold. How does a student fighting the collegiate battle prioritize something that more or less may initially feel like "what's going around"?
As college students, we are at a special risk. We live in a 32,000 person cluster, sharing the same classrooms, bus seats, dining halls, etc. Yet we remain overly concerned with our academia and social responsibilities as opposed to our health.
For those of us that march forward towards the elusive degree, we need to remember that our credentials are all for naught if we can't get there with our bodies and minds intact.
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2 comments:
Those symptoms do sound eerily similar to a hangover. As a poor Ph.D. student with crappy health insurance juggling familial responsibilities and school work, it's easy to ignore symptoms of illness. But, you've got a point; we can have all the degrees in the world but if our health falters, what good will it do us?
This is a good point Colin. I have several friends who know the young man that died, and it has been a surreal experience for them. A couple that were especially close to him were very concerned that they could have contracted the illness from him. That sort of thing makes school work seem irrelevant.
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