If you like to take cold showers, you must be a little crazy. 

A month ago, my friends (Felisha and Mariem) and I wanted to do some kind of 30 day challenge. I opted for cold showers thinking that it was going to be easy. However, I quickly realized that I was wrong. 

Before I go into detail, I do want to say that I didn’t even last a week. Now I feel like I had a good excuse, but I’ll let you be the judge of that.

The first day was horrible, almost like a shock to my body since almost all of my life I’ve taken hot showers. I will say though that halfway through the first shower, I was getting used to the cold.

As the challenge went on, you would expect it to get easier. That was not the case. 

I will say though that it wasn’t all a negative experience. I began to realize that my muscles weren’t as tense after showering. Especially after winter guard practice, I found myself oddly relaxed no matter how much I dreaded them. Researching some of the benefits of cold showers weirdly gave me motivation to pull through those first few days. Some benefits include boosting the immune system, increasing alertness, and preventing colds. 

The last benefit was not the case for me. After the fourth day, I realized I was coming down with a cold. I didn’t pay much attention to it and I kept taking cold showers. I quickly realized that the cold showers were not making my cold any better, so I abandoned the challenge. 

You might be asking why I just didn’t continue the cold showers after I got better. Well, I actually do think that the cold showers might have had something to do with me coming down with a cold. Although some may say that’s not the case, I just didn’t want to risk getting sick all over again. 

I didn’t leave this challenge not learning anything even if I failed. I realized that having hot water is such a privilege. Many people around the world don’t have access to hot water. Some just don’t have the option to come home from work or school to a hot shower. 

So from this whole experience I learned to really be grateful for the warm showers that I will continue to always take for the rest of my life.

Throughout the challenge I kept a journal of my experiences read them below:

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March 1st: I was tempted to turn the water from cold to hot. As time went by though, I was somewhat getting used to the cold water. It was honestly really miserable.

March 2nd: For some reason this day was harder than the first day. I kept wanting to not get in the shower because of how cold it was. I will say though that once I did get in, I felt more awake maybe because of the adrenaline.

March 3rd: I really wanted to take a really nice hot shower since my bathroom was really cold, but obviously I couldn’t. After a few minutes though, it was easy to the point where I didn’t even realize I was showering with ice cold water.

March 4th: This time it was easier to adjust to the cold water. I’m kind of getting used to them now. I am also realizing that my muscles feel more relaxed and less tense.

March 5th: I feel sick, so this cold shower did not help at all. In fact, I feel like the cold water made it worse. Either way, the shower wasn’t any different from the past days although I am able to not dread them as much.

March 10th: So I quit my showers because I am pretty sure they were the reason I got sick, so… I failed my challenge.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the GENESIS staff. Email Daniela Morales at [email protected]