I used to experience a phenomenon I called “afternoon fevers” in high school.  Every afternoon around 4 o’clock, I’d get a bit flushed, my temperature would rise, and I’d have the chills.  It felt like the onset of a fever that would result in me shivering until I could climb into bed to sweat it out.  Yet, if I kept about my day, I found that it would burn off before it ever became anything.  It was a strange thing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was partly mental too.

I had kind of learned to dread swim practice, which started right around that time.  I was a sprinter, so all the distance swimming we had to do in practice wore me down.  So, as school was ending and it was time to head over to the pool for practice, my body would react.  Most of the time I’d suck it up and go through practice, which was probably what both made me sick and cured from it.  After all, being wet on a brisk afternoon made it easy to feel sick, but then the intensity of a practice session would heat me right up and burn off any illness.

It was an interesting period that was all but forgotten until I started to feel it again.  Perhaps my immune system is weakest in the mid to late afternoon, so I start to feel the effects of stress more vividly.  Last week, I began to feel sick a couple of afternoons in a row and I learned to suppress it just like I had back in high school.  It’s been awhile since I felt that way, so I bundled up and have been staying warm to stave off any virus that might be trying to bring me down.  I can’t be too weak to prepare my applications!