Hudson: Holiday season brings more than gifts

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

This always happens. Always.

I’m just coming off my holiday extravaganza high, looking forward to the New Year when it hits me, “it” being the flu or some other equally annoying illness.

As I lay huddled in bed, shivering under enough clothes to survive in the Arctic, with nothing to do except add to the mini mountain of used tissues beside my bed, I had plenty of time to think, coming up with such philosophical thoughts as “Where does all the snot come from?” Like the snot mystery, I also tried to figure out why I never manage to get a flu shot.

It’s not as if I wasn’t aware flu shots were available. At the University, I was constantly reminded. Last semester you couldn’t walk five feet on campus without noticing information for a flu clinic chalked on the sidewalk beneath your feet, not to mention inevitably passing the actual flu clinics held throughout the semester in practically every building on campus. It was more like I had to avoid the flu clinics rather than try to find one. As if that wasn’t reminder enough, I passed Watkins Memorial Health Center every time I walked between class and my car. To my procrastinating mind, that building was a constant reminder that I still hadn’t gotten the flu shot.

So with all this availability, why didn’t I just get the shot?

For two reasons: first, I never actually intended to get the shot. Sure, the part of my mind that takes the form of my mother told me I needed to get it because every year I get sick. Yet the rest of me, the procrastinating part, knew I’d never actually do it. Getting a shot is just one of those things in life that is necessary, but no one enjoys. It’s one of the things that even the most organized people put at the bottom of their priority list. Whenever the thought of getting the flu shot popped into my mind, I pushed the unpleasant image away, reassuring myself I would just get it later, while knowing perfectly well I never would.

The second reason I never got the shot was because when you’re perfectly healthy, only hypochondriacs think about the possibility of getting sick in the future.

When considering getting the flu shot, the first thought that always pops into my head is “I won’t get sick.” Nobody pre-plans getting sick, which usually means it happens at the most inconvenient moment. This is how my refusal to get a shot turned my post-holiday veg time into two miserable weeks of daytime television and doctor visits.

However much I try to explain my refusal to get a shot, my reasons always seem ridiculous when I’m sick and seriously regretting my refusal. So now that I’m feeling better, with this learning experience behind me, will I get a flu shot next year?

No need. I won’t get sick.

Hudson is a Wichita sophomore in journalism and business.

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