Sugar!

  So, instead of being informative about the life of an allergy afflicted teenager, i decided that today i would just write about a funny story and lighten the mood! 

  One night i was going out with my friends to dinner at the ninety-nine, a common Lynnfield hot-spot. We got seated at our table and we're just having fun, gossiping about the week. When the waitress came over to take our orders, she was loud and overly-friendly. She immediately asked all of us if we went to Lynnfield High School, and when we all answered yes she started to rant about how she was a close friend of our history teacher. Us, as a group of teenagers, felt awkward that she wouldn't stop talking.

  Eventually, she took our orders and almost all of us ordered the same thing, the BBQ chicken wrap, which is probably the only dish i like at the ninety - nine as well as it is the most popular dish served there. 

  When i placed my order i told my waitress about my food allergy and when she confirmed that she would check with the chef and let me know when she came back out, i felt safe. But, right before she left our table, she said, "Well, it must really stink being allergic to sugar!"

  I was extremely confused by this statement and immediately asked her what she was saying, to which she responded, "You said you were allergic to sugar, right?" "No..." i said, "I'm allergic to tree-nuts..." And after that was said she went into a rant about how her hearing was going as she gets older etc etc etc. Once everything was cleared up, she left and me and my friends immediately burst out laughing at our table. "How could she think saying tree-nuts was sugar?!" we all kept saying, barely able to talk from laughter. 

  Ever since that night at dinner, saying "Sugar?!" in an old woman's Boston accent has become an inside joke that can make any of my friends laugh at any time.

  Although allergies are a serious thing, there are always funny stories and times that come along with them! Being safe is a priority, but so is having fun with friends!

School Lunches

  Sorry for the delayed posting, it's no coincidence that just as school starts my blogging slows down. 2 AP classes, 3 honors classes, studying for the PSATs, studying for the SATs, and dealing with a social life.. Gotta fit blogging in there somewhere. There can be so much stress in school and there can be even more stress in the lunch room. 

  All throughout elementary school and middle school i was assigned the "Nut-Free Table." AKA, the loner table in the corner that was as far away from other tables as possible. I had to sign up which friends would sit with me each week and they had to inform their parents that they couldn't bring any nuts of any sort that week and that they must wash their hands before and after eating with me. 

  In elementary school, i didn't care that i was separated from the other kids, because i still got to sit with my friends. When i was young, it was actually popular to get to sit at the nut-free table because it required a special invitation. My friends now, who weren't my friends in elementary school, always tell me that they always hoped to get invited to the nut-free table and were crushed that they never were. I basically invited the same people every week so no one other than my two best friends at the time had a chance of receiving an invitation. I was like a lunch-time celebrity.

  In middle school that changed, i went basically unnoticed at lunch and no one really gave a shit if they were invited to the special table or not. By middle school everyone had their little cliques, and i had mine, so i always sat with the same people anyway. The table was of course in the corner, far away from all the others so that there was no chance that the air i breathed would be contaminated.
  By the time i was in eighth grade, i started getting angry about having to sit at the god-forsaken nut-free table. I wanted to feel normal. By the end of eighth grade, i ended up sneaking around the lunch-room and sitting at other tables, eventually pissing off the nurse. (I don't always have the best relationships with the school nurses, due to my stubborn attitude.)
  Once i got into high school, as soon as the idea of a nut-free table was mentioned, i shot it down. I was old enough to keep myself safe and there was no way that i was committing the total social suicide that was sticking me and my friends in the corner of the lunch room. 
  I understand the concept of the nut-free table in elementary and middle school, where i was too young to truly understand how to keep myself safe and would've easily caved to peer pressure. In high school i'm more mature and know how to keep myself away from danger. The older i've gotten, the safer i have been able to keep myself and more importantly, the less i have needed the nurse to assign me to a nut-free table.
  Although i hated the nut-free table in eighth grade, i'm sure it helped to keep me safe in the long run. 
  In high school, i may have more independence, but i also have more responsibility to keep myself safe.