#28 – Sick Days

I’ve been sick for the past two days and it has been terrible. While I’ve been home sick I have spent my time sleeping, playing video games, watching TV and playing games on my iPhone. When I’m sick I find that I revert to my nerdiest behaviors; embracing those behaviors is like chicken soup for my sickly soul and body. Here are some nerdy ways I spent my sick days when I was younger.

Video Games

I didn’t have a video game system until I was 13. When I turned 13 I got a Sega Genesis and it was glorious. I would play Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with my sister; I would play as Sonic and she would play as Tails. When I was sick I would always fire up the Genesis and play my sickness away. Video games are a great option when you’re sick because they require very little focus and they’re not too physically straining. I suppose the same can’t be said about today’s video games, though. Trying to get rest and get better wouldn’t really work playing Wii Fit or Kinectimals. Flapping your arms around like a chicken or dancing to Thriller isn’t going to get you any better. It would turn those chills into a hot flash, though.

Watching Star Wars

Whenever I was sick my go to movie was Return of the Jedi. When I was younger Return of the Jedi was my favorite movie. I now know that The Empire Strikes Back is a much better movie, but when I was 7 I couldn’t get past all the talking, flirting and character development. (Man, my 7-year-old self would love the prequels; they don’t have any good dialogue or character development.) I loved watching Return of the Jedi when I was sick because I could start watching it, fall asleep after the fight on Tatooine and wake up in time to see the final battles. I would have trouble falling asleep after the movie finished, though; it’s hard to fall asleep with “Yub Nub” ringing through your head.

Reading Comics

I still like comic books but not as much as I did when I was younger. I still remember trading most of my comics to a friend for a broken Nintendo. That was stupid and the regret still haunts me today. I loved reading comics when I was sick because, again, it doesn’t take that much effort. Right now I’m reading The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and it makes my heard hurt after a little while. I’ve never had that problem with a comic. That’s why I enjoyed reading comics when I was sick: it didn’t take effort, it passed the time and it gave me new ideas for how to beat my friends when we played X-Men. And by playing X-men I mean we would pretend to be the X-men and slash each other with imaginary claws and shoot each other with imaginary optic blasts. And I wonder why I didn’t have a girlfriend until I was 22.

Those are some nerdy ways that I spend my sick days. Honestly, though, that’s how I spent the days I wasn’t sick. It was just nice to do those things when I was sick because no one would tell me that I should be outside playing instead of being cooped up inside. I liked being cooped up inside with my video games and my comics and being sick gave me an excuse.

How did you pass time on your sick days?