Unlike many people I know, I’ve never really suffered from allergies. I was blessed with a resistance to pollen, bee stings, and even poison oak. It’s a trait that’s come in handy many times (as a kid, I once tied branches of poison oak to my arms for camouflage … I figured out what it was later when my friend broke out with huge rashes). This year, though, my immune system failed me and I’ve finally become susceptible to the nasty airborne bugs that pester everyone else.
It all started two weeks ago, actually. I went to work with a sniffle and was blowing my nose consistently throughout the day. I thought I had a cold, so I doped myself up on cold drugs to try to get through the symptoms as quickly as possible. Yeah, it didn’t work very well. I was in a daze for days, and since I was treating an illness I didn’t have, my treatments were highly ineffective.
After the first week of sniffling and watery eyes, I realized I was just allergic to something and started working my way through all of the 24-hour allergy pills on the market. It took a few days to find an effective one, but now that I have I’m set.
… at least until I decide to run through some bushes with my brother while searching for hidden geocaches. I’m still not sure what I’m allergic to, but I can rest comfortably in the knowledge that I’m not the only non-allergy-sufferer suffering this year. Apparently the weather has brought a whole slew of new allergens into the environment, and I’m anxious for the sun to come back out and bake these new things out of the air.
But now I can sympathize with all of those people I’ve made fun of over the years. So to anyone whose cough, sniffle, sneeze, or other allergy symptom I’ve made fun of – I’m sorry. Now please take your allergies back 
