Being Ill as an Adult

We grow up vicariously through being sick. As children, in fact, we occasionally looked forward to sick days! This meant we could watch daytime cartoons (Arthur, anyone?), eat as much soup as we could, and, best of all, spend time with our family. For me, being sick meant I got to sit on my grandmother's couch, eat saltine crackers with a ginger ale, and watch The Price is Right! She would tend to my every need, and make sure that I would feel better. It has been imbedded into my internal harddrive that being sick meant being taken care of.

As an adult, however, this is much less the case. Today I woke-up (and by 'woke-up' I mean decided to give into having been awake since 3:00AM from a sore throat and body aches) and had to evaluate whether or not I was in a state where I could attend work. My thought process used to be"I am sick, PLEASE don't make me go to school, take me to Grandma!"But, I am no longer a student, and my Grandmother passed away 2 years ago. Now I say, "I am sick, but I need to work so that I can buy soup for the next time that I am sick."

How terrible is that? As adults we can't slow down for a moment to make sure that we are healthy.

I can't even get upset for having gotten ill (which I did ask off from work, mind you), because it was entirely my fault. This past week I was bouncing around between two part-time jobs, as well as my responsibilities to a local community theatre. Not to mention the fact that I was up at 6:30 everyday to go to the gym before work. I literally worked myself into illness. I didn't allow myself to relax and recoup from the day, instead I kept myself busy until I passed out from exhaustion.

Being sick as an adult has become such an inconvenience. We see it as "How am I supposed to work now?!" instead of "I should moderate my work so that I don't get sick in the first place."Yet, we live in such a world where we have debt, loans, and other financial responsibilities that require money to facilitate the burden. As a college graduate as of May, I have a lovely 6 month grace period until my loans come in, so this sick day is not as much of a burden. However, all I can think about are the single mothers in America who work 3 jobs to feed their children, keep a roof over their heads, and educate them. How can a single mother take a sick day? Does she risk losing a job? Why don't we have support for that woman so she can take a day off in order to feel better? Where is her Grandma with saltine crackers?

Oddly enough, this is my thought process while I lay in bed, ill. Sure I don't have children or huge debt to weigh me down, yet. But, those things may (or will, in the case of debt) happen. My only hope is that I can be in a place where I have the time in the day to take care of myself. Until then, I will lay in bed and blog about it. Being ill as an adult isn't much fun, but luckily The Price is Right is on at 11AM.