What is Sumpring, you ask? It’s that beautiful time of year where everything is in full bloom. The time of year that you wake up to birds chirping and the sun kissing your face. But most of all, pollen flittering up your nose, a pervading abundance of hay fields being cut and any other allergies you can think of. Ahhh yes, the transition between Spring and Summer… So much fun, so much to do, and after spending months upon months in the freezing winter temperatures, it’s finally time to break out shorts, tank tops and sandals. However, if you’re like me, you wake up excited to enter the world of sunshine, flowers and bliss but while passing through the door into the real world, you get attacked by pollen, and end up returning to the house to blow your nose until it bleeds, and take a nap until it’s raining again (maybe a little less dramatic, but you get my point.)

Summer comes with so many great opportunities to stuff your face with watermelon and get your tan back that faded when the trees changed months ago and spend time with loved ones that you haven’t seen in forever due to an exuberant amount of homework. However, the last stretch of Spring is the death of many (such as myself.) It teases and flaunts the beauty of Summer dreams with plundering upsets of allergens.

As I sit by the window looking at bees traveling from flower to flower, long hay fields swaying with the wind and birds sunbathing in our outside pond, I am thoroughly jealous I cannot partake in these festivities. Spring is a beautiful time of renewing and rebirth, but an uncanny jail cell for those impacted by its wickedry. I have learned in my past 21 years of living that medicine is such allergies are mild anti-sneeze mechanisms to postpone the suffrage, which cannot be masked for good. After living in way too many layers in order to stay warm during the winter, I like to believe that this teasing sub-season is around to humble us humans and remind us that we are not always in control. I like to believe the bees are laughing at me while I sneeze up mucus and rub off my perfectly layered mascara, and say “HA! I finally won.” Because Lord knows that they never do, so they have to be able to win sometimes.

But in conclusion, I have to threaten the allergens that gibe me everyday, and proclaim, “I will successfully drive down my driveway without a sneeze, and I will finish an afternoon hike without feeling like my brain is about to explode. You won’t be around forever, Sumpring…"