The assignment for the day is established and all of the well-intentioned students dive their noses into books and the sound of the room is extinguished like a light.  Students are silently working until there is a sharp inhale in attempt to clear sinuses.  This first inhale reminds others students that they are sick as well and the silence is broken with a cacophony of snorting and blowing.  This is flu season.  That is just the first sign, within days the student attendance slowly withers away with more doctors reports.  At this point the media has decided to put their two cents in and endorse flu prevention, as if we didn’t think of that before.   Everyone feels inclined to tote around hand sanitizer and the super germ-aphobes spritz the air with Lysol and ingest Airborne.  I’ve seen the signs of mass epidemics; I just don’t always take the same precautionary steps. Instead, I unintentionally do quite the opposite.  It all starts when I get up in the morning because I see my breath and realize how cold it is in my room.  I know it’s because I leave my fan on and in turn, I’m not giving my immune system a fighting chance among all the free radicals, but odds are they can’t survive in my room either.  My other issues occur at school. I’d rather enjoy my time with friends instead of being stengy about my health.  I give high fives without much concern of where’s the other participator’s hand has come from.  If one of my friends has a good looking drink from Java City, I ask for a sample sip regardless of if they were complaining about a head-ache last period.  I maintain good hygiene but I’m not crazy about germ-x, I don’t even wash my hands for the suggested 20 seconds; ain’t nobody got time for that! It’s not like I have this overconfidence that I’m impervious to pathogens in the air that I breathe, I just don’t worry myself so much about the risks.  I’m sort of a free spirit.  Tell me what you readers do during flu season.  Maybe there are some other anti-germ-aphobes around.