A burst to my bubble

Most of my complaints everyday are small unimportant things like, it's a little to hot in my room, or I don't feel like going to work or writing that paper; but every now and then the bubble that I seem to be living in bursts, only to rebuild itself later.

Just now I was reading on CNN.com about the WHO's upgrade of the Swine Flu to a pandemic alert, which after some research I learned means it's worse than an epidemic because it affects people in a large region. It moments like this that I realize that I am not in a bubble. It is possible that I could contract the Swine Flu. Although I will go back to my room tonight and warn my roommate of the virus and she will chuckle and say that I am always telling her about a new health warning, I think this is a serious one, just as I was worried about the peanut butter scare a few weeks ago.

It is entirely possible that this problem could get worse and affect myself or people I know. I read that there have been cases in NY, just one state away, of several children staying home with flu like symptoms. There is a chance, I'm hoping, that those children don't have the swine flu, but it really hit home that it is so close.

After the swine flu problem goes away, which can't come fast enough, I will probably return to my bubble of feeling safe until the next outbreak of some kind appears. Its amazing how myself and so many other people often go around knowing there are terrible diseases out there affecting so many people but feeling completely confident that we won't contract them. Now I'm not saying we should walk around afraid to touch door knobs (btw I don't touch a lot of them--don't judge) or being afraid all the time, but I do think it is important to take warnings seriously and be concerned when the WHO is calling this a pandemic, especially when the last pandemic was in 1968 the Hong Kong flu killed over 1 million and in 1918 the Spanish flu killed more than 100 million people.

Lets not become a statistic of the dead, face it your bubble has been burst, now go wash your hands!