Surrounded by Nuts

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I was the first person in my school to be diagnosed with a severe peanut allergy, and as noted I was forced to sit at the office alone during lunch, in order to protect me. This was my normal for three years, until finally I was granted a special table in the lunchroom alongside the other kids with allergies. Luckily, things have improved since then; I was younger and less responsible—people needed to take care of me. However, even now as a young adult people are still set on protecting me. My friends, though for the most part easygoing, suddenly become rigid and strict when I suggest we go out for lunch. “You can’t eat there Dalton! You have a peanut allergy.” Before I can even argue they’ve dragged me off to some other place, in the belief that I will be safer there. Then there is always the constant worry that the people who choose to hang around me are only there on the off chance that they will get to stab a needle into my thigh.

It’s not only my friends that act differently around me because of my allergy. I remember, just a few years ago, I was riding the bus home after school when my allergy came up in conversation. A boy a few seats ahead then revealed a can of peanuts, seemingly from nowhere and began to launch them at me from down the aisle. I’m not sure whether he expected me to fall to the ground crippled by his little bits of oily legumes or he thought that he would have good enough aim to land one in my mouth and potentially kill me. Either way I feel it wasn’t very well thought out. There are a scary number of people in the world who hate us peanut freaks. I have been bullied due to my allergy, and have received death threats retaining to killing me with a peanut product. Countless have told me if they were me they would kill themselves. Although none of this bothers me as those are just shallow opinions of people who are too ignorant to know any better.

Unfortunately for the parents of peanut allergy children and the children themselves, quite a number of these ignorant, self-proclaimed Darwinists have put their opinions onto the internet. Throughout my research I came across more than a few forums where people were sharing stories of the insanity of those with a peanut allergy. Most believed us to be selfish, hoping the world would stop everything in order to keep us safe. A few of them even go further, saying that we deserve to die for our weakness, or even threatening to kill people with peanut allergies (which effectively contradicts Darwin’s theory of natural selection).

Unfortunately this sentiment seems to be shared by many otherwise intelligent people. In the U.S last year, parents and students of an elementary school decided that a six year old who had recently developed a peanut allergy needed to leave the school as it was making it too difficult to pack lunches. When the school did not immediately agree the parents and students picketed outside of the school, demanding that she be asked to leave. A large group of working class civilians protested in order to remove a grade one student from her school for something she couldn’t help. If the same thing was done due to another impairment—say she was a paraplegic, the world would be outraged.

And so my life has been a constant roller coaster of people who either care too much about my allergy, and those who simply don’t seem to understand that it is a life threatening condition. Neither extreme is desirable. The information available on peanut allergies has grown at an exponential rate since 1998, but I still feel that the idea is relatively foreign to most people. Perhaps a little knowledge would help us. As of right now I’m concerned about coming into contact with the nut known as society, roasted in ignorance. If the general population would just realise that walking into a Tim Hortons (most likely) won’t kill me, then my life with a peanut allergy would become much simpler. In conclusion I would like to share my hope that one day, dealing with the people won’t be the hardest part of my allergy.

Bibliography

Ringerud, Tanner. "20 Things That Kill More People Than Sharks Every Year." Buzz Feed. Buzz Feed, n.d. Web. 10 Dec 2012. .

Mondello, Wendy. "Your Child and Multiple Food Allergies." Living Without - The magazine for people with food allergies and sensitivities. Living Without, n.d. Web. 16 Dec 2012. .

"Parents picket girl with peanut allergy, ask her to withdraw from school." CNN. CNN, 24 2011. Web. 20 Dec 2012. .

Irish, Paul. "Peanuts lead allergy list, national survey finds."Health Zone. Toronto Star, 5 2010. Web. 10 Dec 2012. .