The power of a positive mentality

When entering college for the first time, it is so easy to think, ‘I will not get sick all of the time.’ I assumed my health would remain as it was before at two minor colds a year occurring about six months apart. In college, however, I have had colds that resemble the Black Death and I acted as a poor victim, and it just so happens that this negative attitude was worse than the colds themselves.

Although I dislike the symptoms of colds, I hate that my mentality worsens over the course of the cold. Basically, I feel like I have to put my life on hold. When I cannot recover in a short amount of time, I become frustrated and desperately take as much medicine as I can without exceeding the box’s instructions.  (Note: medicine does not work when you need it to. Only time and the mercy of the Lord will cure you.) I put recovering from a cold as my only task that cannot get done quickly enough. If I am coughing my lungs out in class and a teacher suggests that I get water, I’ll mumble ‘Nothing helps,’ like a pathetic martyr.

After I recovered from one of my colds this year, I felt guilty about acting so dramatically. I hate complaining, yet I was being hypocritical. There are people throughout the world suffering indescribable and awful events that I cannot fathom, yet I was acting like I was dying because my ribs were hurting from coughing?

I can apply this thinking to not only my hatred of colds, but to other things that people commonly complain about. For example, college students are so lucky that they have been granted the opportunity to attend a college and further their education, yet so many people do not fully realize how much of a miracle it is that we are here. For the most part, students are healthy, despite the occasional cold. Because we are so fortunate, it is so common for people, myself included, to act overdramatically with minor things like colds.

If anything, having a poor attitude will worsen the cold. If someone is already not feeling their best, they should not perpetuate thoughts that reflect a dramatized version of how their health is.

Instead of believing that a cold is a roadblock in life, take it as a message that you need to stop or pause for a little bit and reflect on life. It’s like driving. Are you going too quickly or too slow? Do you like the direction you are going in?  Does your car, or yourself, need some work done? When someone drives, their car runs out of gas occasionally and needs time to re-fuel. A cold is an opportunity to stop at a gas station and fill your car up.

Colds are unfortunate, but they are a frequent reality at college. I have had four brutal colds and two cases of food poisoning this year alone, but each time I should have reflected on what caused the illnesses and found a new roadmap if needed.