It’s that time of year again: flu season. Your roommate has to send that uncomfortable text to the apartment group chat saying that their stomach is feeling a little weird, and that they may or may not have just thrown up in the bathroom. Sorry.

While most people we know are comfortable telling their roommates they’re sick and asking them for help, all too often it seems that Kenyon students go on with the rest of their lives like nothing’s changed. That’s why the Collegian offers this gentle advice: please stay home.

Kenyon students, for the most part, are hard workers, but it’s okay to take a break when you’re sick. At best, you’ll only make yourself feel worse if you come to class. Let’s be honest: how much can you really absorb in your Joyce seminar when you have to run to the bathroom every 20 minutes? At worst, you’ll get your fellow students sick too, and it’s not okay to make yourself a disease vector so you can feel like a gold-star student.

We know it’s tough to be a “considerate” sick person at Kenyon. Contrary to popular belief, the Cox Health and Counseling Center will not excuse you from class except in extreme cases, meaning that the already beleaguered sick student must email each of their professors individually. And it’s not as if you can really stay out of contact all day, since everyone has to eat at Peirce Hall.

That being said, there are a few guidelines everyone — not just sick people — can follow during flu season: Wash your hands before entering the servery, cover your coughs and sneezes with a tasteful dab — and, most importantly, spend the day at home getting better and catching up on your favorite TV shows.

The staff editorial is written weekly by editors-in-chief Cameron Messinides ’19 and Devon Musgrave-Johnson ’19, managing editor Grant Miner ’19 and executive director Matt Mandel ’19. You can contact them at messinidesc@kenyon.edu, musgravejohnsond @kenyon.edu, minerg@kenyon.edu and mandelm@kenyon.edu, respectively.