Sick Days

I'm home sick today.  If you knew me, you'd know how rare a thing that is.  Some sort of stomach or intestinal virus has me in its grasp, and it would have been a bad idea all the way around to try to make it through a whole school day--I think just about everyone can understand why.

The interesting thing about this sick day is how long it took me to decide to take it.  While my instinct told me that I needed to stay home and my logic agreed with my instinct, there was still a huge part of me that kept coming up with reasons that I shouldn't stay home.  That's the hyper-responsible part of me that just doesn't want to do things like take sick days, the part of me that was developed as I grew up in a family situation that tends to breed either hyper-responsible people or completely irresponsible people.  I became one of the former.

Now that I have decided to stay home sick, I feel good about the decision.  This is a chance for me to recover and rest, to spend a day trying to get better.  Being at school might have been possible, but I know for sure that it wouldn't have helped the healing process along.

There are times when we just have to take heed of what our bodies are telling us and obey their messages.  I'm a person that pretty much never calls in sick--this is the third sick day I've used in the last six years--and it's hard for me to take the hint and stay home.  My sense of responsibility tells me that I need to be there, but I know that I don't--the school day will progress very well without my presence.  The students will be fine, and the other teachers will be fine, and the administrators will be fine.  And someone who can probably use the money will have a chance to earn a bit more.  And I can get well--I can recover more and allow my body to heal or to fight off the bug or whatever it is that's affecting me.

Some days we just have to follow the hints that life is giving us and give our logic and rationality a rest, too.  Now that I am at home, resting, trying to get well, I have to admit that all of my logic that told me that I could and should be at work today was flawed--and I almost listened to it, almost obeyed it.  I'm very glad I didn't.