Pollination Paloozza

Hunter Campolo, staff writer

Pollen season is in full swing in Georgia right now, and it’s assaulting everyone’s allergies. Eyes are swelling up, noses are running, throats are closing, and it leaves a lot of people asking: Why? Not a curious why, but a desperate plead for mercy. It’s as if overnight, a giant yellow curtain descended on the state of Georgia, bringing despair with its blooming flowers.  

Pollen is basically flowers spreading their seeds around to fertilize other flowers around themselves. They throw out so much of it because the odds of it landing in another flower are quite low, and they want the best chance possible. However, with the amount that’s in the air, on the floor and on the cars right now, it seems like it’s impossible not to hit another flower. And it’s like the flowery freaks want everybody to know they’re there; they paint the whole city yellow. Every surface within a 10-mile radius of Johns Creek is tinted with a nice sunshine-y color. It’s not possible to avoid it either. Every time the front door opens, a shotgun blast of pollen just unapologetically lets itself into my face, and the windshield wipers make a cloud of it every time they’re activated.  

Staying inside doesn’t work either, because it comes in through the vents. Even considering going outside at this time of year makes people sneeze. Washing it off of surfaces is pointless as well, because it clumps up in the water drops and then comes back to replace itself in 30 minutes. Unfortunately, it’s incredibly important for the ecosystem to flourish, as it helps grow new plants and bloom flowers. It’s half the reason there’s food on the table, because nobody would be harvesting crops without it, but it also brings back all the non-yellow color after the winter season in the form of beautiful flowers. While it makes everything look pretty, it certainly doesn’t feel like it. 

Since it’s a necessary evil, the only thing that can be done is to live with it and take precautions. Taking 24-hour allergy medicine every morning helps with the symptoms, and so does using nasal products like Flonase every day. Some people, like Coach Gillison, started using allergy medicine weeks before to get it in their system, but it’s too late for that now. The only foolproof solution is to wear a gas mask or a snorkel everywhere, drop a humidifier in every room in the house, and pray.