Precious little in this world motivates me more to wake up for a 9 AM Monday class than knowing that after living for a week in filth, the Larrabee bathrooms will have a fresh stock of paper towels, and the concrete floors a delicate scent of Pinesol.
But after living in the dorms for the past four years, I’ve definitely desensitized to the “grossness.” Frankly, after reminding myself that there are communities in the world where hundreds of people share only one toilet, to complain over a little pee on a toilet seat is nothing more than a blatant white whine.
When it comes to spreading germs and illnesses, which is all but unavoidable on a tightly-knit campus (remember the 2009 swine flu?), I start to justify my utter frustration for what feels like living among…swine.
Flushing toilets is perhaps the greatest source of germs. Although I have definitely been one to opt for the “foot flush,” I’ve recently taken the initiative of using a square or two of toilet paper to avoid getting germs on my hands while flushing.
There are the issues with hand washing. Granted, the unfortunate reality is most people these days will only bother to wash their hands after peeing because they don’t want the person who recognized their feet to know they don’t wash your hands. Social graces can be an awesome hygiene motivator!
But next time you’re caught in a “tree falling down in a forest” situation, why not just spend the extra fifteen seconds and wash your hands? Even opening and closing the latch on that bathroom door stall probably introduced you to a substantial number of bacteria. Do you really want to go back to your laptop after a quick bathroom trip, only to coat your keyboard with all that? Gross.
At this point, I realize I’m probably coming off as a germaphobe. I swear I’m not that bad. I fall victim to laziness just like any other young adult. But I’ve also gone as far as prizing my ability to take alcoholic shots, because it enables me to take cold medicine every other Ny-and-Day-of-my-fall-semester-life-Quil with ease, and it’d be really nice if my mom’s care packages (which as a senior, I realize I’m still lucky to be getting at all) didn’t have to consist of laundry sheets and on-the-go chloroseptic.
Given the fair share of males on this campus who aren’t even inclined to bother to shut the stall door while peeing, I realize writing this article may be for naught. But at this point there’s no harm in trying.
Fortunately, these days you don’t have to rely on hand washing alone to keep from getting sick, given the numerous flu shot options available to the New London area. This year, Walmart is offering them for $20, Target for $24, CVS for $30, Rite Aid for $25 and Walgreens for $29. Conn’s Warnshuis Health Center, on the other hand, weighs in at a very reasonable $15 that can even be billed to your student account. The only hold up is that you’ll have to wait until October 18 for their supply to make it in, and they’ll only be around until the 21.
So, if you don’t want to spend three consecutive Thursday nights in November in bed like I did my sophomore year, consider a flu shot. That rumor that you can get sick from the shot is false. Flu vaccines cannot give you the flu. The viruses in the vaccine are either killed (flu shot) or weakened (nasal spray vaccine), which means they cannot cause infection, according to Target.
In the meantime, wash your hands. You might as well make the most of that water bill your tuition is paying for. •
