Yesterday was not a good day.  Yesterday I felt sad and alone.  I also felt scared and threatened–and I just don’t think other people understand food allergies sometimes.  I was going to come home and write about it, but I was upset, so I thought I would take a step back and sleep on it.

Yesterday the main attraction on the menu at school seemed to be a peanut butter sandwich, and literally just about everyone who bought lunch had one, which is a little over half the school I would say.  I go to a small IB school.  We are housed inside the Freshman Center of a large local district.  Yesterday was their first day of school, so now we share their food service. I spent lunch basically surrounded by peanut butter. That wasn’t awful; I’ve been in similar situations before and just avoid the stuff. But this time was different.

One kid, who has picked on me in the past, taunted me with his peanut butter sandwich by holding it close to my face, waving it around, and laughing, etc.

He looked at me and said “I could literally throw this at you and you would die”, and then he laughed. It made me feel scared and uncomfortable.

Luckily, I had some good friends who stuck up for me that day. They told him to stop and, although he kept on going, it helped me realize that the friends who I do have are good ones. They told me I should probably leave the cafeteria early so I did. The whole thing just made me upset.  If someone said “I could literally stab you with my scissors and you would die” they would probably be suspended–or worse.  I wish people would understand that, for people with food allergies, peanut butter is just as dangerous and threatening as those scissors would be.

Every time I think that the other kids at school understand, something like this happens. I know many of them do understand though, and it makes me appreciate the efforts my friends go to in order to ensure my safety.

I just came home feeling down.  Thankfully today was a better day.

Until next time,
Gary