It was the day of the test. I arrived at the classroom ten minutes early just in case anything hindered me from getting there on time. I, along with my classmates, nervously waited for the test to begin, as we frantically reviewed our notes. Our teacher walked in the room with the ginormous stack of tests. We were about to begin our work when our professor’s wife walked through the door with a tray of cupcakes. At first, I was excited for the sweet treat, but I remembered, “Oh, wait, I can’t eat that.” After this thought, my professor’s wife uttered the most magnificent words in the anxious moment, “They are all gluten free.” Internally, I was screaming with happiness. I owe my professor’s wife and those cupcakes for calming my nerves and helping me achieve an A on that test.

College is hard. It’s even harder when you have a food allergy. As you may have guessed, I am unfortunately allergic to gluten. I walk into the cafeteria, and I am surrounded with hot, tasty smells that linger from bread, pasta, and pizza. Now, I have not been allergic to gluten my entire life. I recently discovered my allergy this past summer. So, I am still attempting to navigate what I can and cannot consume. To my surprise, almost everything contains gluten, even some ice cream. Checking food labels and asking waiters for the gluten free menu has lately been my life. This is hard, but the biggest learning curve, concerning my allergy, is how to maintain a healthy, gluten free diet in college. So, what have I learned within my time at college?

The dining hall is ACTUALLY your friend. Many people with allergies enter into college with a preconception that the dining hall only serves basic foods, with no alternatives. However, this is not the case. Many dining halls are now adapting their meals for people who have allergies, offering gluten free foods and many other allergy friendly options.

Many people with allergies are sadly scared to ask if there are alternative options. From personal experience, I have been nervous to ask for gluten free options out of fear of embarrassment or creating more work for the staff. But, you got to do what you got to do to eat. I finally got over my fear and realized that the staff is happy to accommodate to different allergy needs and even take suggestions for different food options.

Another way to maintain a diet that deals with allergies is to make meals ahead of time and freeze or refrigerate them in your dorm room. It may require a little extra work, but making meals at home and bringing them to school immensely helps people with allergies. Plus, you will always have a quick meal at your fingertips if you don’t want to walk all the way across campus for a meal! Between freezer meals and the dining hall, the majority of people with food allergies attain plenty of food to eat.

So, for those of you who struggle with finding food because of an allergy, have no fear because there are options available. You just have to be willing to ask questions, make suggestions, and apply a little more work. Most people would agree with me that good food is completely worth the effort of finding it! I encourage my fellow food allergy friends to even start petitions to show the school staff that a certain food is needed regularly in the cafeteria. So, my friends go out and make a difference so you can say, “Yes! I can eat that!”