HW 17

Fortunately, my experiences with illness and dying have not been too extensive. I have visited multiple family members and a close friend of family a few times at the hospital, but have not myself had to deal with severe illness. (even though some would say that we are dying the moment we are born, I prefer not to look at life in such a negative way) In a way, I have been taught to see illness and dying as something that is just a part of life, and every now and then I find myself thinking about it and becoming a little depressed. After all, it is a depressing thought, knowing that everyone including yourself will have to deal with illness in their lives.

I have also always had a dislike for hospitals in general, because in my life all the times that I have had to visit the hospital it has been for a bad occasion, and never for something like giving birth. This has placed an unfair bias in my mind that hospitals are miserable places, and all the hospital shows on television today as well as the people I know who have spent a long time in the hospital also do a good job of emphasizing how the patients really just want to be free. My family has been around much longer than I have, and have had a lot more time to think about these issues. They have learned to accept the fact that practically everyone will deal with illness and dying, and have had a lot more experience in the past with both of those things than I have.

To be honest, I am not really familiar with the social norms involved with illness and dying. However, I am aware that it has become very common for parents to get a lot of vaccines for their children when they are very young, and it is "normal" for many people to go to the doctors office for an annual check-up. Something I don't usually think about much is how much humans pay attention to their health compared to other animals; we brush our teeth, we constantly go to doctors and specialists, we always wash our hands... and other creatures just eat what they can to survive. It seems like humans pay so much attention to avoiding illness that we end up living unnaturally long lives.