Allergies & Me

Hello! Below is a story I originally published in 2021 on *sneezes an absolute goober of a snot rocket* the worsening of allergies due to rising temperatures.

Since that story was published, the Chicago area and the broader Midwest have kept up their hot streak: average temperatures have continued to rise, with winter and spring temperatures increasing by approximately 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit; in 2024, the Midwest had its warmest year on record, with an average temperature of 52.3°F—3.3°F above the 1991-2020 normal. Some have gone so far to conclude that winter is officially over.

As if things weren’t bad enough, the new administration is wasting no time undoing whatever climate progress was eked out over the past four years, making it likely that allergy seasons will get even worse (alongside far more pressing and dystopian realities). On his first day back in office, President Trump improved to 2-0 in withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement and also declared a national energy emergency, allowing the government to process energy requests quicker and invoke eminent domain on private land deemed it deems a “national necessity.”

My seasonal allergies have turned to absolute shit. 

I’m congested constantly. I have headaches for a good part of the day, and when those subside, and the pressure under my eyes makes me wish I had a headache. Before seeing a doctor, who prescribed me three kinds of allergy medications—quick shoutout to Zyrtec-D, Flonase and this other kind of nasal spray that has an aftertaste that rivals the sweetness of what I imagine gasoline would taste like—I convinced myself that I had developed several brain tumors that would explode and kill me as the American Elms in my neighborhood started to bloom.