mouth breathing

When I was a little kid, my mother insisted to me that "only white people have allergies." Since there were no Asian kids in the town I grew up in, I completely believed her. I also believed her when she acted like my constantly stuffy nose was my fault because I breathed through my mouth. Your nostril hairs filter out the dust, she said, but when you breathe through your mouth, there is no filtering, so the dust causes mucus to build up. Oddly, it never occurred to her or to me that maybe I was breathing with my mouth open because I had a stuffy nose, not the other way around. Sometimes, when my mother saw me breathing with my mouth open, she would put her hand on my mouth and tell me to practice breathing through my nostrils.

Since I've gotten older, I've learned to breath with my mouth shut, but every once in awhile, I go through phases where my nose is stuffed up all the time. You know, like in the spring or in the fall, when there is a lot of pollen in the air. I never cared before, but since I moved to California, it has severely affected my running. So today, for the first time ever, I took a Claritin before going on my run. Yes, Claritin, an allergy medication. And wouldn't you know it. I could breathe with my mouth closed again. All this time, I've just had allergies. I guess my mother's nightmare came true--I've finally become a white person.