As the school year kicks off, it tends to feel like our immune systems revert back to our newborn days. With flu, fever, and illness running rampant through the air and our systems. After the initial sore throat, runny nose, and puffy eyes, you assume it’s done, right? But alas, it comes around again even harder. With the sicknesses getting passed around from person to person, the fatigue doesn’t usually wear off until mid December, if not later. So, picture this, you’ve got a cough, a bad headache, or maybe a fever. All you want is a little peace and quiet, so you head to the nurses office for some dim lighting and maybe a nap. But instead of a comforting room, you’re met with sterile white light bulbs and two plastic green chairs. This was the exact predicament I was in when I had an awful sickness. I had to lay across two small chairs with my sweatshirt as a pillow. I went back to class with an even worse headache than I’d already had. If anything, me lying on my desk would have been more comfortable. Perhaps if there was a small bed similar to the other Hayward schools things would have been different.
I’ve spent many restless nights imagining this scenario. Replaying the image of those sad little plastic chairs on a loop. So, instead of going insane because of this predicament, I think we should just get a bed in the nurse’s office. In case someone has a cold during the winter months, or a migraine due to the awful light bulbs they use in there, they’ll be able to snag a quick nap before heading back to class. If someone were to overuse this feature or come in for a nap whilst not sick, you can make them sit in the sad chairs until you believe they’ve paid their dues and are allowed back onto the bed. It may sound cruel, but this bed would be for the people who really need it, not the fakers. I truly do hope Hayward thinks about the points made here and also agrees with the idea we desperately need a bed.
