Cold Day

It sucks to be sick but sometimes I am thankful for the sudden illness. It forces me to take a break, to just spend the whole day in bed and nurse myself back to health.

Last night, after badminton, I suddenly felt my throat hurt, making swallowing difficult. Then I had a montage of sneezes. Right there and then, I knew I was going to have a cold—my most hated of diseases.

As a child, I loathed the common cold. I’d experiment with different sleeping positions to stop the mucous from dripping. But of course, there was never any effective solution to that problem. So I always ended with a slumber-less night. In frustration, I’d punch or kick the bedroom wall. I SO hated having colds. If given the choice, I’d prefer coughs to colds anytime.

But when I grew up, I learned to live with having the occasional cold. I learned to live my life more or less normally when I had it. I studied, and eventually worked, while sniffling, sneezing and blowing my nose.

So today, I just spent the whole day at home today, napping, snuggling to Haroun and the Sea of Stories, sketching, and sucking the sour-sweet meat off the santol seeds. I didn’t go to CLL’s birthday lunch, and I won’t be playing badminton later. I have to respect my body’s desire to rest.

It still sucks to be sick. But it’s cool to feel like a kid again, who needs TLC. For me sickness is part of a cosmic plan. There’s time for work and play, but there’s also time for rest. We can’t control everything in this world like the common cold, and in a weird, logical way, that’s comforting.