Navigating Chronic Illness in University
This artifact does not come with an incredible project to show, but it did greatly define my college experience in the beginning. I have always struggled with chronic health issues that are furthered by stress, and I quickly found that the pressure of school, work, clubs, having a social life, and adulting completely compromised my immune system. The first few years of my college experience were marred by illness after illness, whether that was a respiratory issue, loss of circulation from stress, not being able to consume food for like four months, or other random things. I had strep throat, a two-month-long pneumonia situation, and a few other illnesses that had me taking five rounds of antibiotics during a six-month stretch.
Part of the stress that impacted these situations happened because I pushed myself to succeed in classes that I didn’t enjoy, whether that was reading 500 pages of a textbook a week or staying up late grinding coding assignments that brought me no joy whatsoever. It’s really easy to fall into the pattern of trying to balance everything by overworking yourself, especially in an environment that values and positively recognizes productivity. Throughout this process, I had to really learn what was best for my health and happiness.
Pictured on the right is my fingers losing circulation as a result of grinding a CSE 123 assignment for 10 hours. The second picture is the first meal I made without gluten or dairy to try to mitigate some of the health issues I was experiencing. These were both milestones for me because the first picture made me realize I needed to spend more time taking care of myself in university and pursuing a topic that interested me instead of stressed me out, and the second one was a big moment because I realized that I could restructure my life in ways that still allowed me to enjoy things without having serious health repercussions. Throughout the process of getting sick, I also came to the understanding that I wanted to do work that involved creativity, because it made me happy, and that I also needed to take my health and time management more seriously if I wanted to survive in university.