Illness In Virginia Woolf's On Being Ill

Being ill or injured has a way of altering the way you think about mundane life and can give you a new gratitude for what it has to offer. Even the simplest strains of illness can have this effect, such as having a common cold. When I think back to when I was younger, I can remember wishing to be sick so I didn’t have to go school. I assumed it would be the best thing ever to just sit around all day and not have to do tests and read. Nevertheless, when I actually became sick, I very soon realized it wasn’t everything I hoped it would be. The sensation of being on fire and then being dunked into an ice bath from the cold sweats of a fever or the soreness in my body from laying in bed all day made me change my mind on how fantastic it was to be sick. I longed to be back at school even …show more content…
This is characterized by the first sentence on page three of On Being Ill. “Considering how common illness is, how tremendous the spiritual change that it brings. How astonishing, when the lights of health go down, the undiscovered countries that are then disclosed,…” Woolf’s struggle with illness is obviously more severe than mine, but because of this she produces a more serious development in thought than I. Woolf develops a greater appreciation for nature, life and the mind in a broader sense. An example of this would be on on page fifteen of On Being Ill, where Woolf discusses the mind being a place where no man has trodden underlining the concept that our own mind and thoughts are undervalued and not many take the time to understand and explore them. Woolf has been able to develop this conclusion through her time alone she’s been afforded because of her illnesses. I said the more serious an illness or injury the more serious your modification in thought can