11/03/2020
Hey, everyone!
Here's a mid-week update as I'm on the train to uni. I've had a crazy start to the week but I think it's worth sharing what happened over the last two days in particular because I've learnt something really important from it.
I woke up Monday morning with a soaring fever and felt absolutely terrible. It had come out of nowhere, though I suspect my sister's flu must've passed on to me some time in the previous week, but I had never experienced such a bad one. Within an hour, it was completely gone and I was making my way up to uni fine. I got through my two classes for the day feeling okay and had thought little of what happened in the morning; it was almost as if it had never happened at all.
It wasn't until I was heading back to Circular Quay station that things went south. I was heading towards the gates of the station when I suddenly began to lose consciousness and almost completely collapsed to the ground. I tried calling out to people around me for help but either I wasn't calling loud enough or nobody came to help me at all. I was luckily able to get myself to a nearby seat and had a drink of water before giving Oliver a ring to come grab me. I was literally just sitting there on the bench for about twenty minutes fanning myself because my temperature was rising and I needed to remain awake.
Eventually, Oliver found me, got me on the train and home safe. I got changed into lighter clothes and basically was knocked out for a solid five hours at home. On top of all of this happening, my whole family has been in and out of the restroom with stomach problems so we reckon it's probably food poisoning of some kind that's managed to affect all of us.
As for what happened yesterday, I took the whole day off to recover. I missed out on four classes and my acapella society rehearsal but will be making steady attempts over the next few days as I regain health to catch up. For those who don't know, I reallyyyy hate being away and to have to miss out on my busiest day of the week (of which three out of the four classes have participation marks) was a total living nightmare for me.
However, I've learnt something really valuable from all of this and it's that pushing myself beyond my personal limits is only going to result in catastrophe. I am always someone who works above and beyond and I think I've always been afraid to admit if I'm exhausted, burn out or stressed. I saw my doctor yesterday and after he prescribed me medicine and wrote up my certificates with uni, he looked me in the eye and said "please take care of yourself, in every way." I've heard this from a lot of people but I also am aware of how quickly dismiss it because of how well I think I know my limits. This was all bound to happen at some point; the food poisoning, weather changing and overall situation just pushed it into full gear.
I hope this entry can be a reminder for myself of the consequences of not taking time off when needed, of overestimating my abilities to manage multiple commitments and to always prioritise getting rest during hectic periods of my life. With major assessments coming up in the next two weeks, I'm really going to have to pace myself well and come to terms with the fact that I shouldn't always be pushing myself, and that's okay.
That's all for today. Hope everyone has a great week!
Toodles,
Angelina