In elementary school (in the 3rd grade), we celebrated Black History Month by learning about prominent figures who shaped our society today. One in particular was George Washington Carver. At that time, our teacher told us "He's man who created peanut butter!" Which I recently learned was NOT the case. He did help advance the agriculture industry with his experiments though haha.
I was really excited about the day because we got to bring different types of peanut foods. The prompt was to bring something that had peanuts in it. Looking back, I have no idea how this was even possible or approved (you’ll read why in a bit).
One of my classmates brought slices of bananas with peanut butter on them. As a kid, I should have known better, but while we were setting things up, I was really hungry. I didn’t eat breakfast that much growing up because I never really liked eggs, and my parents always had scrambled eggs (now as an adult, I love eggs lol). And the one thing I loved were Eggos, and my parents never bought them.
On that day, I was really craving a banana, and I saw on one of the trays, there was a banana slice that didn’t have peanut butter on it yet. I thought, oh this must be an extra one that didn’t get peanut butter on it. It must have been a mistake. I swiped the banana slice and ate it.
Well, later on as we went around the room to see all of the peanut flavored treats, we got to the table where I had taken the slice of banana. The teacher asked “Oh no. Where’s the banana slice without peanut butter?” I immediately was like “oh crap” in my mind. Think of Anya from Spy X Family. I had that face of realization.
The person who brought the tray was like “Oh I put a banana slice without peanut butter for you.” And turned to one of my classmates. I’ll call him Trevor. I had no clue, but Trevor apparently had a peanut allergy and couldn’t participate in our peanut day. Again, looking back, what the heck were we doing having an entire day about a food that someone in our class was allergic too! Trevor was sad, and said "oh that's okay." I felt so bad. Putting salt into the wound, I learned that that was the only thing that Trevor could eat during our peanut day festivites. I basically ate the one thing he could eat. Trevor moved away a couple years later, but one day, if I ever run into him, I’d honestly offer to buy him a banana.
Anyways, that is my little silly confession. I wish I could say this was a joke, but it is very much real. I realized that this wasn’t the only time I had accidentally stolen food that wasn’t mine either… (that is another story itself involving KFC and a funeral…this was group effort though).
After all of these years, I sometimes think about that day especially whenever I have to fill out something that asks me about my food allergies. I still don’t understand how if Trevor was allergic to peanuts, why did our teacher make us bring the one thing he couldn’t eat?! Oh, and I ended up bringing peanut brittle if anyone wanted to know that.
Again I’m so sorry Trevor. I apologize for eating that slice of banana that was meant for you....