This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at FSU chapter.
Unless your immune system is magical, getting sick during the school year is inevitable. Between being surrounded by thousands of students and toxic Tallahassee pollen, living in close quarters with others (especially if you live the dorm life) and juggling all the stressful assignments and tests you are basically inviting the FSU Plague to take over your body. From personally having the weakest immune system you could imagine subjecting myself to all the colds and bugs that spread around campus, I have learned that being sick while the college life continues on around you is an experience like no other. What better way to show the struggles the experience entails than through these photos and gifs!
When that sore throat signals the beginning, and you rush to take Emergen-C to stop the cold before it really starts. You try to pretend like everything is fine, but deep down, you know what’s in store.
But when you wake up the next day with a boatload of cold symptoms, you realize it’s too late, so you’re forced to accept your fate.
 Even though you feel like trash, your professors still expect you to show up for class, study for tests and write essays. If you’re involved in organizations, dragging yourself to meetings is an extreme burden.
 You spend all of your class focused on the endless dripping snot from your nose and trying not to cough an unacceptably obnoxious amount of times rather than listening to the lecture.
 After class, you make a beeline for your bed because being awake is just too exhausting at this point. You don’t care who you have to push out of the way, as long as you get from point A to point B as fast as humanly possible.
 When someone asks if you’re doing okay even though they know very well that you feel like absolute death.
 When the weekend approaches and all your friends plan to go clubbing, but you’re far too miserable to dance in a crowd of sweaty, intoxicated people. Just the thought of it makes you want to vomit.
 So your Friday night plans look quite a bit different. You have a date with your pillow and blankets in your comfy bed.
 And you’re forced to watch everyone out and about, having fun, all over social media. Although your bed is the only place you have the energy to be, you can’t help but get FOMO when you tap through all the Snapchat stories.
 You want your parents to take care of you, but you’re forced to suffer through it on your own, away from home. Not only are you physically sick, but now you’re homesick too.
 When your health finally returns to normal, you are on top of the world. If you can make it through a period of sickness during the stressful semester, you can conquer anything.
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