Not that long ago, we were on our way to the city to see a favourite author deliver a reading of their recent masterpieces.
On the day in question, I wasn’t having a good day from a breathing perspective. We’ll never know the exact cause, but all I knew was that my lungs felt a little twitchy. Naturally, I have an inhaler system to keep things under control, but it still seems that in the quietest moments, in the presence of others, a tickle can quickly escalate into a full coughing fit. There is no worse feeling than being in the audience of a dark auditorium and having all eyes on you, while a chorus of irritated tsks plays in the background. I didn’t want to be THAT guy… the one who can’t keep a cough under control.
To prepare, I brought along my little satchel to carry my inhalers, along with a generous supply of cough drops to keep things as calm as possible. Just before the performance, I excused myself and went to the restroom for a private meeting with my inhalers. A few deep breaths later, everything felt good. On with the show!
Shortly after sitting down, I realized that the spotlight wouldn’t be on me tonight. It would be on the many individuals surrounding us who met the brief as “THAT guy.” Within earshot, I could hear every variation from dry hacking coughs to wet coughs, feeling like I was in the middle of a cough syrup ad on TV.
How? It was only September. It wasn’t anywhere near peak season for colds and flus. Where the heck did everyone pick up their throat tickles? Sadly, I did not think to bring enough cough drops to share with everyone in my entire section.
In the hope of protecting myself, I reached into my bag and discreetly rifled through each pocket to see if I could find an N95 mask leftover from the COVID era – unfortunately, no such luck.
While I wouldn’t consider myself a germophobe by any stretch of the imagination, the reality is that in the past, I have caught some bad cold bugs that took me a while to shake off. They were never cause for concern or hospitalisation, but dragging out a cold longer than necessary is a drag in itself. That’s why I was hoping to find some form of precaution.
By that point, my focus had drifted off course, and I had missed a few paragraphs from our beloved guest speaker. I reminded myself to get back in the moment and to enjoy the show.
All I could do was trust that none of these coughers was seriously contagious (otherwise they would have stayed at home, right?) But also, I needed to trust that my system would be able to fight off any airborne bugs that might pose a risk.
As I returned to the moment, my fellow spectators’ laughter drowned out the coughing sounds I was hearing earlier, which helped drown out my fears as well.
Fortunately, in the days that followed, all was well, and neither my partner nor I developed any cold symptoms. I guess there wasn’t anything to be afraid of, despite the cringe-worthy coughs that surrounded us.
Either way, I count my blessings that for this evening, I wasn’t THAT guy who was the object of everyone’s eyeball-rolling and tongue-clicking, but that it was the turn of several other people to share those honours.
Did you enjoy this post? If you did, your likes and shares are most appreciated. If you haven’t already, please check out the rest of my blog at andrebegin.blog.
Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André
Leave a Reply