Opinion
 

Sick days aren't always enough

by Summer Dawn Gorbea

The requirements of this world we live in have no basis in actual reality. All of us go to school. We're expected to show up for each class on time, have the appropriate assignments finished, have our minds sharp and focused on the lecture at hand and, as I heard one professor, say, "Spend at least three hours of study time outside of class, per hour spent in class." I started to laugh hysterically at that one, but the wide-eyed freshman in my class started giving me looks, so I suppressed it.

That's all well and good, but my life just isn't that simple and yours probably aren't either. Sometimes life starts to fall apart. Acceptable excuses for missing class is confined to being sick or having some sort of medical emergency. But what about everything else? It feels as though there's no room or time to have emotional issues. There aren't many professors who would accept, "Sorry, I was having an emotional breakdown last night, so I couldn't study for your test," as a valid excuse.

In the past year alone, I have ended a tumultuous two-and-a-half-year relationship and started a new one, dealt with my sister having a baby -- who almost died and was in intensive care for a month -- and started and quit a series of awful jobs. I didn't even mention having to cope with several bad hair days. I know I'm not the only person who has problems like these. I know a great deal of people who have dealt with worse.

Yet we are just expected to deal with it. Emotional problems can be just as bad, and often worse, as any physical ailments. It's clear that simple "sick days" just doesn't cover everything.

So here's my suggestion: We should implement a program that would allow us to cope with these real problems. With this program, in addition to "sick days," we would all be allowed an allotted number of absences. Here are just a few of my suggestions: a "I just broke up with my boyfriend / girlfriend" day, a "my life is falling apart" day, and perhaps even a "nothing is going right and I'm feeling sorry for myself today" day.

There are many possible objections to this program, I know. Many of you may think to yourselves that this program would be taken advantage of or that everyone would use it too often. However, I still think it would be helpful. Many small annoyances would disappear. That snippy person behind the counter who just gave you incorrect change could be having a bad day. If my program were implemented they would be at home feeling sorry for themselves and someone with a much better outlook on life would be there instead, handing out correct change with a smile.

Or they could just hate their jobs.

But still, an "I'm having a bad hair day" day would be awesome, wouldn't it?

Gorbea, a columnist for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached at spicypepperpoet@aol.com.