When I was growing up, my sister and I tortured each other as much as we could.
It was a daily battle to make the other person cry through sneaky measures that our parents couldn’t detect.
One of my sister’s favorite things to do was to run by and smack me in the face with a bouquet of flowers. Sure, that sounds pretty inert, unless you have terrible allergies like I do. As soon as she would smack me in the face with that massive bouquet of wildflowers, a plume of green dust would fill the air and circulate through my lungs. The pollen would cling to me for the rest of the day, and I would be utterly miserable with my red itchy eyes, constant coughing, and perpetually scratchy throat. My sister thought it was absolutely hilarious, and she would tell me I was being ridiculously dramatic if I ever complained about my horrendous airborne allergy symptoms. Well, karma is a bitch. It turns out, my sister also has allergies. She just didn’t know about it until she moved to the South. Now, she is also surrounded by pollen whether she likes it or not. Suddenly, she’s calling me on a regular basis to tell me how uncomfortable she is and ask for advice on living with terrible allergy symptoms. I’m reluctant to tell her much, but I have suggested improving her indoor air quality at home. If you can install an air media purifier, you’ll be able to draw out more of the airborne contaminants that are irritating your respiratory system and give your lungs a chance to recover. She’s taken my HVAC advice and installed new filtration devices for her central heating and cooling plan. And she even thanked me, while finally admitting that allergies suck.