When you are a kid, get­ting sick is not too big of a deal. You get to miss a day of school, your par­ents take care of you, and you get sym­pa­thy from your friends.

At col­lege, being sick is a totally dif­fer­ent story.

You have to take care of your­self, and miss­ing a class means that you are behind sched­ule, and have to pro­cure the notes from some­one who did go to class.

I thought I had it all fig­ured out until this past week­end, when I awoke Sun­day with severe pain in my throat. I slept very lit­tle, and I had to study for a midterm and fin­ish a paper while seri­ously under the weather. It was not an easy expe­ri­ence for me, and I learned some impor­tant lessons:

Get as much rest as you can

When you are sick, sleep is your best friend. Your pri­mary focus should be restor­ing your health, so don’t waste energy on par­ties or sports.

If you have to study or write a paper, give your­self breaks and don’t stay up work­ing all night.

We don’t do our best work when we are sick, and that is mag­ni­fied when we are sick and tired.

If it’s bad, see the doctor

Hit­ting up WebMD is not the same as going to a doc­tor; don’t try to diag­nose your­self. Most schools have a stu­dent health cen­ter on cam­pus; please do not be afraid to visit it.

Plus, if you need a delay on a test/paper because of your ill­ness, most pro­fes­sors require copy of a doctor’s note. Also, if you need an exten­sion on a paper or test, let your pro­fes­sors know as early as pos­si­ble, because they may not grant it if you ask them on the day of a test.

And if it is a really seri­ous ill­ness, see­ing a doc­tor is the fastest way to recovering.

Take care of yourself

Just as impor­tant as treat­ing your sick­ness is pre­vent­ing it in the first place. Try to get a decent amount of sleep each night, and wash your hands regularly.

One last piece of per­sonal advice: do not drink alco­hol when you are sick. Your body is strained enough when it is fight­ing an ill­ness; don’t bur­den it even more by get­ting drunk.

If any­one else has per­sonal sto­ries of being sick at col­lege, or advice on the topic, please com­ment below.