9 p.m. Rainy season. Friday night. I was standing in the open air hallway when a mo-ped drove in with a bundle of cloth thrown over the driver’s lap. He jumped off the bike yelling, “Dogo toro” (doctor in the local language). Within the swaddle, lay a two-year-old girl drenched in sweat, barely breathing audibly. We placed her in a bed and I immediately examined her for severe malaria.

It probably comes as no surprise that college students make up one of the unhealthiest demographics in the country. Part of it comes from the “invincibility-complex” that plagues every incoming freshman. Trust me, I’ve been there. I can’t even begin to count how many times I headed to class in shorts and a t-shirt when the temperatures were below freezing outside. But then when you graduate, you realize just how senseless you were all those days and you finally understand that if you actually took a few seconds to take care of yourself that you wouldn’t have been sick as often as you were.

In February, The New York Times published a piece entitled “In Tough Times, the Humanities Must Justify Their Worth,” pointing to the declining numbers of humanities majors amidst their ever-more difficult marketability in today’s economy. With a much more steady demand for graduates in “technical” fields such as engineering or healthcare, the examination of “what it means to be a human being” is now “a great luxury many cannot afford.”

But are humanities so unmarketable?

All university students who shadow at a clinical site should strongly consider getting immunized for both H1N1 and seasonal flu as soon as the vaccine becomes available, if it is not already mandated for you. In New York State all healthcare workers are being mandated to get both vaccines for seasonal flu and H1N1. This includes physicians, nurses, social workers, laboratory technicians, housekeeping, security/transportation services, construction workers, and even hospital volunteers. Technically, even construction workers and food vendors need to get vaccinated now. Thus far, New York State is the only state to have passed this mandate. Earlier this week, nurse union leaders led demonstrations in Washington D.C., claiming that this mandate is unethical.

OK, so that’s not exactly true, which may be why the children’s book of the same name didn’t do nearly as well as its predecessor. Still, peeing is of great importance — it is number one, after all — and there’s probably a lot that you do and don’t know about it.

For example, you might not know what gives urine its particular color, but you most likely know that public urination is acceptable for dogs and not for humans. I could start off this column with some humorous personal anecdotes, but I don’t want to be scolded for “unprofessionalism,” so let’s just dive right in:

My pee is yellow