Penn Staters, I have a bone to pick with you. Last weekend, I sacrificed my body and soul for 48 hours to help out kids with cancer.

I also have a job. I work at an establishment downtown that sells tanning as a secondary service. I was quite dismayed on the first morning I came in after Thon, when I had to spend the first hour of the day feverishly booking tanning appointments. The phone began ringing before I had unlocked the door and call waiting was beeping faster than my heartbeat. Once every single slot from 7 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. for the rest of the week was filled, I thought for a second and became really sad. People were lining up for cancer.

Why had I suffered the swollen calves, fallen arches, aching back, loss of rational thought processes, inability to recognize friends and relatives, and hallucinations? Was it all for nothing? Don't you people realize that there is no Dance Marathon for grownups who have cancer?

You have to be cute to get college kids to stand on corners in the cold and can for you, and you have to have cancer by accident. But my job is not to save you from yourselves, so I will not tell you not to tan. I just ask that you have some respect for those of us who busted our butts last weekend to prevent cancer and make sure the person you are booking your tanning appointment with wasn't a Thon dancer. Please humor us and make our efforts on the dance floor seem a little more worthwhile.