About 1.1% of the US have a peanut allergy. I guess that makes me special? It’s not something to be proud of, I mean it’s not like I’m going around bragging about it. But it does make me unique, and I kind of enjoy that. The fact that it separates me from other people and doesn’t make me just a “normal girl”. But don’t start thinking it’s all sugar and rainbows, it can really suck sometimes.

In my opinion the hardest part of living with this is the store trips. And don’t get me wrong I LOVE shopping. Target is my happy place. But every time I try to buy something, I have to check the label of ingredients. You may be thinking, “what’s wrong with that,” but something you should probably know about me is that I hate reading. Like I would choose to do my math homework over reading – and that’s saying something. And also, have you seen an ingredients list? Like I don’t even know half the things on there. What even is xanthin gum? Anyways, as I was saying it is hard to find things that I can eat, so I resort to the things I know I can have. Sometimes this strategy can get boring over time, but it’s what I know. 

Ok, I may have said the worst thing is the store trips, but the absolute heart crushing part is when my favorite brands change. For example, I used to eat these yogurt covered raisins that were soooooo good. They had just the right amount of yogurt on top of them.  They were from a brand called Sun·Maid, I used to love them with all of my heart. They were my favorite snack and I would eat them ALL the time. But then, everything changed. They started making dark chocolate covered raisins. But the dark chocolate was made in a facility that processes peanuts. This would mean they were cross contaminated making it possible that the chocolate could have traces of peanuts in them. Let me tell you, I was crushed. I literally had a meltdown in the store (I was 5, don’t bully me).  I have a bunch of other stories like this, but they all pretty much go the same way, so I’ll just give you the gist. The quote “made in a facility also processed with peanuts” will be the death of me (literally and figuratively).