Common Cold

Author’s note: This is a research essay for my science class. It is about the common cold, how it could affect you, how you can cure it and the differences between colds and allergies.

 Everyone feels the horrible dread of feeling like they’re going to puke, or pass out. Every single person in the world goes through this feeling, but it may be more serious, or it’s an overreaction. Feeling this queasiness of not feeling well, you may have something wrong going on in your body, which you’re not exactly sure of. Although sickness and viruses may be deadly to the body, you can still cure and react to your common colds. Possibly not knowing what’s going on in your body is a good thing. On the other hand, it’s also a terrible thing. Most of the time if someone doesn’t feel well it may be because they have the common cold.

 A common cold is a virus or disease spreading throughout your body and it interacts or mingles with your cells, until it goes away. Even though there are more than 100 types of sickness, or viruses that spread around the world, people mostly only get unwell at least 4 to 8 times a year (Common Cold, 1998 - 2012). This mostly happens during the winter season, when it is cold and wet. When you first catch a cold, you may have been with it for a few days, without even realizing it. The virus doesn’t take effect until at least 2 or 3 days later (National Center for Biotechnology Information). Normally, whenever you catch a cold or small sickness, you receive it from another person, possibly even a friend or family member. If you want to try your hardest not to take delivery of this illness, then try and stay away from someone that was, or is sick, until you positively know for certain that they have gotten rid of it. Another risk of becoming in poor health would be going someplace where there is a huge crowd, because of all the germs and illnesses that could possibly be spreading through the air. One other step you could take is to wash your hands constantly in case you touched someone that has a virus, or something that they may have touched themselves (MedicineNet).

While you are on your infection or condition, you will be hoping to find cures to get rid of them. One cure is eating chicken noodle soup. For the most part, that does help prevent it, or makes you feel better for a little while. On the other hand, taking medications might also help with the pain and prevent even more damage to yourself, if you have gotten worse. Lastly, another treatment you could try would be either gargling salt to help your throat if it hurts, or to drink lots of fluids, such as water, orange juice, milk, or anything else that might possibly help with curing your unpleasant cold (Common Cold, 1998 - 2012).

 If you have ever thought or confused a cold with some other symptom, it might have possibly been an allergy, because they are closely similar. You catch shocking colds from other people that are sick, but for allergies, you would catch them from your other family members, when you were born. Normally whenever or wherever you have an allergy, it is most likely to be indoors or outdoors (Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.) If you have an allergic reaction, you might have the symptoms of runny nose, sneezing, itchy nose, congestion, sore throat, headaches and possibly more (Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp). You can use medications to help prevent these affects of the body, but it may not always help. If you go to the doctors and they give you a certain medication, you must take it, to get rid of the reaction. The symptoms of an allergy and an illness are almost identical, but if you’re not quite sure which is which, ask a doctor.

Meanwhile, if you’re possibly feeling ill, is it because you have an allergy, disease, or something worse? Or is it just a simple common cold? If you feel unwell or appalling, it most likely has the results of you having a cold, in which you recovered from someone that has been by you recently. Most people would take medications to prevent the pain, or runny nose, but you can also just simply rest and take care of yourself.


 Bibliography Common Cold. 1998 - 2012. 18 April 2012 . Jack M. Gwaltney, MD and MD Frederick G. Hayden. What a common cold is. 1999 - 2007. 18 April 2012 . MedicineNet. "Common Cold Symptoms." Common Cold (1996 - 2012). MedicineNet, Inc. A cold, or seasonal allergies? 1996 - 2012. 19 April 2012 . Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, N.J., U.S.A. Indoor and Outdoor Allergies. 1998 - 2012. 19 April 2012 . National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda MD, 20894 USA. Common Cold. 2012. 18 April 2012 .

Shari Cooper

Author’s note: This is a Character Development piece about the main character in the novel Remember Me and how her actions affected people around her. Her name was Shari Cooper and she was a dynamic character.

in the beginning of the novel Remember Me , Shari Cooper was just a young, eighteen year-old girl that was just starting to figure out what to do with her life. Her flowing blond highlighted hair and her eyes as green and bright as springs grass, are now gone forever from the world. She was once the popular rich girl, but now is the girl that has been murdered. Shari Cooper has developed and changed in a way that makes her a dynamic character.

First off, Shari Cooper was an innocent, sweet, popular girl in her school and at home. She was especially sincere to her older brother, who had diabetes and color blindness. She loves him more than anyone in her life, even her best friend and boyfriend. But, that innocence was lost when she started doing drugs and drinking. She became pregnant with her boyfriend’s baby, and it seemed like she didn’t care as much for her other friends and family members.

Even though Shari changed in ways that she shouldn’t have, she is still the same girl that she was before, just a little more disobedient. During the party, where she died from a balcony, she found out that her boyfriend was cheating on her with one of her friends. She became depressed and then wouldn’t talk to anyone. But then later on in the novel, that is especially when she has changed into a dynamic character. When she died, she turned into a ghost roaming around the world, looking for things to do, such as helping her friends understand that she will be fine, and so will they. She protected them from their dangerous fates, and her own, until there was none left.

For the rest of the novel Remember Me, Shari was helping another girl that has gone through the same thing as her. This girl was taking drugs and failing in school, until Shari came and helped her secretly, without the other girl knowing what was happening. Shari Cooper has changed lives, as of her own, and she is always constantly helping other people, even if she is dead. Shari herself has changed because she normally wouldn’t help any other person, unless truly wanted to.

Although Shari Cooper has helped people out in their lives, she has helped herself too throughout being dead. She has changed in a way that most people wouldn’t understand, and she has helped change other people’s lives for the better. She started to see the world as a better place for others to live in. This happened in another story too, such as The Outsiders. Ponyboy, the main character in that short story, was also a dynamic character who changed the way he saw things, and he helped the society he lived in, from becoming friends with other people, rather than just hiding, or staying the way he was. He helped his family members through rough times, such as losing some of their friends along the way.

The reason I believe the ghost Shari Cooper has turned into a dynamic character is because she made her life, and the people around her, see that life is great to be living in. and that you should live the best of it for what it’s worth, rather than dreading it. With her actions, she has helped save a few lives of her friends, and has learned a few things of her own. That goes for the main character in The Outsiders, because he has learned how to create a better environment and he has changed a few lives around him.