...yeah, well I had one a few days ago. it was bad enough that I'd drafted most of this post in my head at work. so why was I having such a terrible time of it? because I have always disliked hufflepuffs.
yup, I took it there. but the point is, from high school to college to the field of IT, I always seem to wind up feeling that taking a sick day is unacceptable. in high school, viruses went through the entire student body and staff within a week or two, tops. wellesley has several 'campus plagues' a year (how's that going, guys?).
and then, a few days ago, I sat at my desk trying not to have a nervous breakdown. that day a coworker came in, still feeling ill from the bug that kept him out the day before. he came in out of the same sense of obligation, then came and talked to me close-up, risking infecting me, then managed to knock my whiteboard off the wall and attempted to fix it, his lecture about an apparently shoddy hanging job punctuated by my frantic pleading of 'stop touching my things, stop it, stop it!'*
* yes, this was a hilarious day at the office for everyone not involved. also, he was not as much of a hot mess as he sounds in this post—just rather shaky.
what I'm saying is, even at swells or your job/internship/adventures elsewhere, it is always ok to take a sick day. or a mental health day. because at school, you will learn under these conditions, but you will learn poorly and have to re-learn when you're well. and at work, you have sick and vacation time for a reason: because you are temporarily replaceable, and permanently you are valued highly enough that your well-being is valued as well.
so what I'm really saying is, take care of yourselves, kids.
