Missing one day is better than missing your entire life.

When you’re feeling sick, you should allow your body time to recover, rather than keep going until you break down – whether that breakdown is mental, physical or both.

Yet, taking needed time off from school is looked down upon by the administration, and even by other students. When you have a “simple” cold or flu, you’re encouraged to just suck it up and go to school anyway.     

It doesn’t matter that you won’t be able to concentrate and won’t get anything done, inevitably falling behind despite having gone to school. Then after wearing yourself out, you’ll have even less drive to do homework than normal and fall farther behind.

Some students choose to go to school despite being sick out of fear that they will completely fall behind by missing one day. Except that while there will be makeup work from not being in school, it will not be the end of the world.

Most of the teachers that I have had have been incredibly helpful with assisting me to get caught up after having missed a day or two. Most teachers would rather have you stay home when sick and just make up the work afterward.

Just recently one of my teachers even yelled at the class to “Stay home if you’re sick, don’t get the rest of us sick!”

Even the teachers who rant about the need to not miss their class tend to be understanding if you talk to them. They’re human too, and have been sick before.

You’re also potentially harming anyone you interact with since you might get them sick as well.  

Now there is an entire generation of students who are competing over how little sleep that they get.

You can’t just be tired anymore, since there’s always someone else who got less sleep, and someone who absolutely must mention it.

You can’t just be sick anymore, since there is always someone who is sicker.

How you feel should only matter to you, and how others view your sickness shouldn’t affect how you treat yourself. Just because someone might have it worse doesn’t mean that your situation doesn’t suck. We shouldn’t devalue how others feel. This competition is unhealthy.

How sick or tired you are should never be a competition.

Why can’t we instead brag about things that are actually worth bragging about, and that would actually be beneficial to talk about?

Why can’t we appreciate that as individuals, we have different limits than others?  Why can’t we accept that it is completely okay to take one day off? Why must we compete over every single thing in life?