Yesterday, I could finally recite my five vowels!!!!! I was sooo, sooo happy to hear my raspy voice going: Aaaaa, eeeee, iiiii, ooooo, uuuuuu! Oh boy! 😂

But… I got pink eye. Yeah.

So we ended up at urgent care with my kid. Strep: negative. COVID: negative. The final verdict? Just a common, nasty flu.

And I’m in denial.

Seriously…

Eight days of nosebleeds, phlegm with blood clots, fever, laryngitis, no voice for five days, difficulty swallowing my own saliva, coughing up phlegm at night, a dry cough early in the morning, bone aches, loss of appetite, not wanting to move, losing interest in everything…

That is a common flu?!

That is how the rest of the world feels when they have a common cold?

“Una gripita… tengo gripa… ay, me mueroooooo.”

And I used to look at people like… Really? Why are you exaggerating so much? A cold lasts, what, two days? Come on. Move! Exercise! Keep moving! Keep doing things! Life is beautiful, stop complaining!

And look at me now.

Fíjate.

Is this karma?

Am I paying for the arrogance of believing I was somehow immune?

Is this how a common flu feels to the rest of the mortals?

Well…

Bájate del pedestal de los semidioses, querida.

Benvenuti all'inferno, persona comune

Now I understand.

You feel awful. You complain. You want someone to say, “Ayyyy, no, pobrecita.” You accept the soup, the sympathy, the blankets, the ¨ay, qué pesar¨. You do absolutely nothing for a while and let the world keep turning without you.

And maybe that’s part of the lesson too.

Because when someone else was sick, I sometimes looked at them as if they were somehow guilty of being sick. As if falling into this very ordinary human misery was a personal failure.

Now I know.

If this is what a “common” flu feels like…

Yeah. I get it.

Ay, no.

Pobrecita.