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Asia Hardin

Ms. Winter

English 12 Period 4

27 September 2021

College Essay

Today over 3 million people in the United States are affected by a peanut allergy.

Honestly, it’s sort of embarrassing that they can be killed by one little nut. Every day their lives

are held back by the fear of peanuts present in their food and in their surroundings. People with a

peanut allergy are set at a disadvantage from the very start. They are seen as feeble, and

unevolved. However, they are some of the most meticulous people I know. I am proud to be one

of those people.

The immaturity I carried throughout elementary school showed as my peanut-reaction

amount averaged to about once a month. I felt smug walking into the classroom wearing the

green hospital brand on my wrist from the night before. Saying that I loved the attention is a vast

understatement. However, the escalation of the constant recognition wasn’t always so favorable.

One of my classmates even waved a Snickers Bar in my face, just to see how I’d react. Little did

they know, all that incident did was light a fire inside of me.

I started to look at my deathly allergy as a superiority instead of a disadvantage. I used

resources like the “peanut-free” table at lunch to gain some self-control and confidence. I

became more sensitized to the smell of peanut products. My mind had crafted this “built-in

alarm” that warned me to be careful of my surroundings when I was in an environment in which

I could potentially be exposed to peanuts. I gained a new sense of awareness of things like
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ingredient labels and medical studies, like desentization tests. My peanut allergy ended up

sparking my interest in healthcare.

Laying in a hospital bed at 1 a.m. on a school night wasn’t ideal for an overachieving 5th

grader. However, during my time at hospitals, I became dedicated to becoming an intellectual on

the nurses' actions as they took care of me. First was always the throat examination to check the

extent of the swelling. Second was taking my blood pressure and BPM. Third was the warm

blanket to calm down the initial shock. Then last was always the epinephrine injection. I was

always too busy admiring my nurses’ methods of medical practices to even feel the needle.

I used to possess a lot of anger towards my grandfather for passing me this embarrassing

gene. He thinks it’s amazing how many people nowadays have a peanut allergy––which is

understandable considering that there wasn’t a huge increase of peanut allergies until 1990 (my

grandfather being born in 1949). His viewpoint made me realize that there are a lot of other

people out there like me, and that if it’s so common now, it shouldn't be seen as such a

disadvantage.

As I matured, there were concepts brought to my attention that I had never even

considered. For example, every time I used an Epi-Pen it cost my parents about $300. And, I

started to wonder what would happen if the epinephrine were to fail, just once. I no longer have a

5th grade science lab to look forward to tomorrow. I have a whole life that I’ve just started to

assemble for myself. I am not feeble, nor unevolved. I am a meticulous intellectual.