Most students look forward to spring, eager to start fresh and drive away the winter woes. The winter snow is melting away, leaves are returning on the barren branches of trees, and cherry blossoms begin to decorate the campus. However, while these non-allergy sufferers wake up to sunshine and rainbows, I am greeted with sneezes and sniffles as we leap into this new season. In spring, the blooming of flowers and warmer weather commences, but the pollen massacre begins as well.
Residing on a rural campus is a major contributing factor to this spring allergy induced torture. Spring is so beautiful, yet it is deadly. Here are candid things that spring allergy sufferers in college might experience:
1. “Crying” Accusations (or Worse…)
The worst symptom of my spring allergies are my watery, bloodshot, red eyes. The forlorn look on my face when I am taking notes during class does not exactly make the image look less depressing. On numerous occasions, people have come up to me asking if I am alright, offering comforting words, patting my shoulder, and giving me sympathetic nods. Though I appreciate the concern for my well-being, I fight the urge to roll my eyes as I reassure them for the millionth time, “I am not crying!”
After beating the crying allegations, the pink eye accusations follow soon after that. Everyone stays far away from me, believing that my eyes are contagious. I find myself explaining over and over again that these are merely allergies, and I do not have pink eye. But my bulging eyes are not very convincing, so they only respond with dubious glances.
2. Morning Symptoms
As if waking up to a loud, obnoxious alarm isn’t annoying enough, imagine waking up in a state where you are physically unable to open your eyes. Whether it is from the eye crust or the sheer eye irritation (once again making it hard to beat the pink eye accusations), I find myself stumbling around my bedroom with my eyes locked shut for five minutes when I first wake up. If it gets bad enough, I have to stumble to the sink of my shared bathroom to wash my face and pray that I don’t fall face first into something.
3. Sneezing
With the way people look at you whenever you sneeze during a lecture, you’d think they were aliens from outer space who have never heard someone sneeze before. Or perhaps, my sneezes are just that obnoxious. Holding in sneezes during a lecture is more challenging than paying attention to the content of the lecture itself. It is truly a humiliation ritual.
4. Ineffective Medication
Popping Xyzal pills every day should defeat the symptoms, but no. My allergies valiantly persevere against the strength of such antihistamines, persisting in their unrelenting journey to make my life a living nightmare. In the past, I have even alternated between Xyzal, Zyrtec and Benadryl in hopes that one of them would do the job. In extreme cases, unfortunately, none of these things work, and I am forced to endure every moment of the torture. Yay, spring!
5. Tissue Shortage
One day, I was walking around campus with not a care in the world. Suddenly, I felt an all too familiar tickle in my nose. Then a loud “AH-CHOO!” My face was a mess. Luckily, I had the solution, or so I assumed. I dug my hands into my purse, fishing for my trusty tissue packet. Then, to my utter horror I realized, there were no tissues left. My pleasant springtime stroll became anarchy, as I desperately ran in and out of buildings and cafes on the hunt for tissues. I approached passerbyers like a beggar, pleading with them to spare one of the most prized possessions during this time of year.
6. Spring FOMO
As I study at the Amit Bhatia cafe in Olin, I can’t help but feel a sense of melancholy wash over me while I watch my fellow Cornellians play volleyball in the sun. Alas, I know what horrors await me behind those shiny glass windows (pollen being one of them) and realize that it is better to stay indoors. I convince myself that I can get a pretty good view of a nice day outside from those windows anyway.
One might think they are alone in their battle with spring allergies, but nobody is. The struggle is real. If severe enough, they truly can impact people’s lives in a negative way. Fortunately, the obstacle is not insurmountable. Spring is arriving, so armor up now, because we are in for one heck of a ride.
Ianna Banfield is a sophomore in the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences. She can be reached at ib345@cornell.edu.
