What doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger

I make every attempt possible to not miss work because of sickness. Unless I am physically unable to work (for instance, when I have a crazy bad migraine) I try to make it to my job every day. I catch a lot of heat from coworkers who don’t want to catch my illness, but I always feel that they are overreacting. Honestly, I think people should want to catch my sickness. Sure, nobody wants to get sick, but there are some things that your body really needs. It sounds weird, but your body needs to get sick to stay healthy.

Now, I am not a doctor, but my dad was a piano mover, so….(I hope someone gets that joke). Seriously, though, I am not a doctor, but I have common sense. Every year, I am subjected to a flu shot. You know what is in that shot? That's right, the flu virus. The idea behind getting injected with the flu virus is that my body will fight off these low doses of the virus and will build up protection/immunity against it in the future. Of course, some people still get sick even after receiving the vaccine. It’s not foolproof, but it does seem to work.

So, why do some people act like you have the plague when you cough in their general vicinity? Again, nobody wants to get sick, but if a sickness is going around, is there really any sense in trying to avoid it? We’ve already established that when you get a virus, your body fights it off and is stronger after vanquishing it. There is really no sense in avoiding a sick person. Of course if your immune system naturally sucks (or you have an immune disease), that kind of thing can literally kill you, but if you are a normal healthy person (as most people are), why would you worry about getting sick. Everybody gets sick. It’s something that really can’t be avoided. Sure, you wouldn’t want a sick person to cough all over your cheeseburger, but it’s generally not going to hurt you if you coworker doesn’t want to miss work with a little cough

I bring this up because over the past few weeks, I have been fighting off some late-winter sickness. I have experienced more coughing, sneezing, aching, and phlegm over the past 2 weeks. I even went to the doctor who told me I had a sinus infection. But I know my body will be better off after fighting off my illness (with a little help of some antibiotics). And I am proud to say that I haven’t missed a full day of work because of my sickness. I may have spread it around a little, but I didn’t cough on anybody’s cheeseburger. But I didn’t use any Purell Hand Sanitizer either.