I see sick people... they're everywhere...

When a few people in my class get sick, most of us get sick.

It's part of the nature of our schedules - we generally spend 5-7 hours, 5 days a week, sitting together in the same lecture hall.

Last year, we shared close quarters in the cubes and the labs.

We have a communal computer lab, communal study areas, communal locker areas, and a communal lunch room.

We also pay a lot of money for vet school (well, most of us do). So we don't take kindly to having to miss class for something like illness.

So when one obviously ill person continues to attend class and threatens the sometimes tenuous immune systems of the rest of us, we are frustrated.

This week's main culprit was a person of whom I've never been a particular big fan. I can normally ignore her seemingly self-centered behavior.

But on Monday morning, she arrived to school with this horrible, hacking cough. A cough that is often not covered by a hand, arm, or Kleenex. A cough that is so loud that it regularly drowns out the voice of the lecturer. A cough that seems to seriously bother everybody except the cougher herself.

So Monday was pretty horrible. I was certain I would break with a hack and a runny nose by yesterday morning, or at least today. Fortunately, my immune system seems to be stronger than I thought (knock on wood).

Tuesday was excellent, because all of our Tuesday classes are labs and recitations, and the cougher is not in my lab or recitation groups.

Today was somewhat irritating again. The cougher was in attendance, with a somewhat reduced yet still aggravating and distracting cough. As an added bonus, I encountered a new cougher in my noontime business class, who coughed all hour like the vet school cougher did on Monday.

So I have something to say to all of you coughers out there:

Chug some Robitussin. I will buy you some.

Get some cough drops. I have extras.

Better yet, just stay home until you feel (and sound) better and can refrain from hacking like a 1930s tuberculosis patient every 5 minutes.

Do whatever you need to do. Just stop spewing your contagion into our communal classroom air.

There are 133 of us, and 1 of you. Get with the program!