Welcome to My Life in Labels!

Eating at college can be challenging. Eating at college when you have food allergies can be really challenging. Eating at college when you have food allergies and just experienced one of the worst anaphylactic reactions of your life can be really, really challenging.

And that’s exactly where I found myself this August, kickstarting my sophomore year of college off in the emergency room.

I had almost successfully managed nearly 19 years without encountering a severe reaction to dairy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, chickpeas, peas, legumes, or lentils - up until that point at least.

Since then, I have been more aware of my food allergies than ever before.

Instead of allowing unnerving food anxiety to consume me post reaction, I felt compelled to share my experiences in some capacity.

There are countless overlooked nuances which accompany navigating life — especially college life — with food allergies, and it only feels right to spread what I’ve learned and what I will inevitably continue to learn throughout the years.

My food allergies used to be something that embarrassed me, something that I wished I could change about myself, and something I tried to hide.

No one should feel this way!

I like to think I’ve accumulated a wealth of knowledge on the best ways to not only live but thrive with food allergies throughout the years, and if there is just one other student preparing for college, one parent looking for guidance as their child with food allergies grows up, or anyone really who can learn from my experiences, I want to share them.

And that’s how we got here!

Feeling on top of the world to be starting this project!! ;) Featuring allergy friendly choco chip cookie of course.

I hope to utilize this space as a platform to share any aspect of food allergy life — from eating at college, to eating out, to traveling with food allergies, to restaurant and brand reviews, to more niche facets most people wouldn’t even think twice about. I want this to be a place to genuinely educate, but also to dive into unique “food allergy kid experiences,” to which others can hopefully relate and/or take something out of.

As long as I still have food allergies I can guarantee my life will be “in labels,” but I’m so beyond excited to share “traces of” my adventures as I navigate through it!!! :)

Thank you so much for reading to this point, if you have any suggestions/questions/comments at all please don’t hesitate to reach out via either email or social media, both linked below. I look forward to sharing this journey together!