The Last Lap: 21 Years of Me VS Nuts

I’ve been living with a life-threatening nut allergy ever since my parents gave me a taste of their food when I was a baby, and I suddenly puffed up like a balloon! From that day forward, managing my allergy became a lifelong reality. While I’m grateful it doesn’t majorly impact my day-to-day life or limit me in significant ways, it’s affected many small moments: sitting at the nut-free table in school, politely declining birthday desserts, obsessively reading every ingredient label, feeling like a burden at every restaurant, and, of course, never leaving the house without my trusty EpiPen.

For this week's blog, I was going to write about seeing the new Beetlejuice movie, but just before the movie, I had one of those close-call allergic reaction moments. I ordered at a restaurant, diligently marking on my order sheet that I have a peanut and tree nut allergy. I even double-checked with the server, like always. But when my food arrived, something looked off. As I inspected my meal, I spotted a little ingredient that didn’t quite belong in the meal I ordered. Upon further examination, I found another tiny piece that looked suspiciously nutty….

I noticed my friend's meal included these out-of-place ingredients and she informed me she ordered something with pistachios. She became my taste tester and immediately confirmed it: “Yep, that’s definitely a pistachio.” Thanks, Elizabeth! Crisis averted. Had I not caught it, a perfectly amazing day could’ve taken a very different turn.?

It's funny, though, how good I’ve become at spotting nuts, given that I’ve never eaten one in my life (well maybe one or two).

One time in high school, when my nut-identifying skills weren’t quite as sharp, I was out at Coldstone with friends eating some ice cream. I didn’t mention my life-threatening allergy to the staff (this one’s definitely on me), and they mixed my ice cream on the same counter used for everyone’s orders. As I was happily devouring my brownie and cookie dough creation, I suddenly felt a crunch. Once again, I turned to my friends for backup. They tried my ice cream and confirmed what I feared—there were leftover nuts from the previous customer’s order in mine. And sure enough, I started feeling the effects of the small piece of almond I’d unknowingly eaten. It was terrifying, but a great lesson to be more careful from there on out!

In a nutshell (haha), my life-threatening allergy has made me more observant than most, and, unsurprisingly, a little more risk-averse too. I'm thankful that my parents were always very diligent growing up regarding my allergy. That accidental ice cream incident was a real wake-up call, reminding me to be extra careful and that my allergy is something I need to be aware of for the rest of my life.