Personal Essay: My Allergies In Junior High School

All my life I have had severe allergies that have caused me to be an outcast. In elementary school, I had to sit at a separate lunch table with no friends so I could not come into contact with my allergen. By the age of five, I could make my only lunch, which was the same every day, because I could not eat cafeteria food, and I had learned what I could and could not eat in order to be safe. In Junior High, I had to carry an extra pair of clothes in my backpack and locker just in case the allergen came into contact with me. By the age of ten, I had been to an emergency room more than ten times, usually on Christmas, due to an anaphylaxis reaction. High school was by far the easiest years of schooling because I could resolve an allergic reaction by myself.

Because of all the doctors’ visits and emergency rooms I attended, I realized how hard it is to live with allergies that cause your throat to swell shut and can cause a person to die within thirty minutes if not treated. The idea of people suffering, like I do every time they want to be a little risky at a restaurant when ordering dinner, has pushed and influenced me to find how allergies are caused. Allergies are mutations in our genetic coding that cause our bodies to no longer produce proteins to break down certain foods causing the body to see the food as a danger. The body then produces hives and inflammation which cause the throat to swell shut and a lack of ability to breathe. Research has not been successful in finding how we can correct the mutation causing a lack of proteins and a way to fix