Listening Ears at Emory

          The video below is from a 1970s self-affirmation video entitled, “Free To Be… You and Me.”  I thought of it the other day when I was having a conversation with one of my male friends who was talking about ”how weird it was” that our professor got teary in class when talking about the death of a friend. This comment spawned a conversation about who it was acceptable to cry in front of and what things were ”worthy” of tears. My answer is always, “It’s alright to cry!” 

It started like any other flu I have ever had: pain behind my eyes, body aches, and a general feeling of utter crappiness.  It even progressed like a normal flu bug: fever, chills, nausea, and more feelings of utter crappiness. What a fantastic time to have the flu! With midterms approaching, and Valentines Day and other fun social events to attend, I resolved to beat this sucker into submission and keep plugging along. Until early one Monday morning, I had a 104 fever and my mother advised me to go to the Emergency Room, lest my brain fry like bacon. After a five-hour stint at the ER, I came out hydrated, X-rayed, and slapped with the diagnosis of “Viral Syndrome” just like “every other student seen in the last three weeks.”  With prescriptions for Vicodin (I don’t know why, because I didn’t complain of muscle pain) and 800mg ibuprofen in hand, I left thinking, “Good, now that’s over, I can get back to things.”  Man was I wrong.

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