My entire life I have always leaned towards eating healthier foods. Now… It hasn’t always been exactly my choice to eat like this. When I was younger, my parents chose what I ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Just like any other 5 year old, I was unable to make the decision about every meal I ate. I mean it was probably the right decision, considering at that time I would eat ice cream for every meal each day of the week. 

 

Now, I am 17 years old, and my parents definitely do NOT have control over every meal I eat. If they did, I would have gone crazy by now – thankfully I haven’t.

Over the past two years, my mom took online courses to get a new degree that certified her to be a nutritionist. She earned her degree last June, and is now a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP). I am not completely positive on what she is certified to do, but I do know that she works with clients each day to help them reach their goals.

 

To be clear, my mom does not just try to help people to lose weight, she helps to diagnose them with possible autoimmune diseases such as leaky gut, lymes disease, celiacs, I could go on and on. Her main job is to help identify what issues, if there are any, are going on with her clients. Then she will help to plan a “diet” for them to try to maintain to help them feel better and reach their goals. 

 

While it can be very helpful to know so much about food because my mom is a nutritionist. My family tends to be her guinea pigs when trying to learn more about different “diets” she wants to try. Meaning I have had many many many different food restrictions throughout my entire life. 

 

I’m pretty sure that her interest with food affecting health started around when I was 10, and she cut out gluten from our house. Next she got rid of dairy, then any unnatural sugar – meaning only honey and maple syrup allowed – and then the microwave. At first, it was very difficult to adjust to eating a bunch of food that does not taste very good all the time. Especially since the popularity of being gluten free was not as wide spread when she first started having no gluten in the house. Over the years, I have grown use to the way my mom wants me to eat. It has been difficult to adjust to how to eat so health every single day, especially when I just want a really big cheeseburger and milkshake.

 

Luckily, I have been able to learn a lot about balancing “cheat” meals with my normal meals. Since I am a teenager, I like to go out to get food with my friends – I mean what else are we going to do, the school offers us off campus lunch as Seniors, we got to take advantage of it. I do not always stick to the way my mom wants me to eat, and she knows that. For the majority of the time, I eat gluten free, dairy free, and only natural sugars. Since I have eaten this way for so long, I have learned that if I eat too much candy or ice cream I tend to feel pretty bad after. 

 

Proving to myself and my mom that she’s right, especially when it comes to what I eat. Since I will be heading off to college soon, I know my mom is worried about how I am going to continue to eat healthy there. I think that my body will teach me a lesson if  I stray too far away from my current diet. While it can be very tedious to eat like this 24/7, I have noticed that it helps me in a lot of different aspects of my life. Typically, I feel pretty well energized, I can stay focused, and I never feel bad after eating. I guess eating this way for the majority of my has been pretty helpful. 

 

I think what I am trying to say is that I am very thankful that my mom has raised me to be aware of how I feel after eating fast food compared to a homemade meal. While I still have disagreements with her about food, I think that everything she has done for me has been very helpful. I am very glad my mom loves to share her wisdom about food with me – even when I feel that it is unnecessary, she still loves to share. So I guess what I am trying to say is that living with a nutritionist is a lot better than it seems.

The clock hit 12:00 AM, Saturday, February 1st, 2020. 

My heart skipped a beat. The game had begun… 

… 5 minutes later I see a notification on my phone: “FIRST KILL”

The game: Assassin’s

The players: any Naperville North Senior willing to pay $5

The prizes: 

• Winner(s) – $750
• First kill – $50
• Most kills – $100
• Most creative kill – $100 

The end goal: to survive until May 17th or until no one but you is left

 

Before you get too worried, thinking I am talking about actually getting killed. Assassin’s is played with water guns and silly string. 

Phew!

Now we can get down to talking about the strategy and rules of the game that has completely consumed my life over the past week. 

Here is a quick rundown of the how game works and its rules: 

Assassin’s gets organized by a few seniors each year, they help to collect money and forms of information from everyone that wants to play. Once the registration deadline hits, everyone that turned in their money and forms is now considered to be players. Now, the organizers begin to assign targets to each person playing. The assignment of targets is completely randomized, and you find out who your target is the day before the 1st round starts. 

There are 3 rounds over the course of the next 3 months, all of it ending before graduation. The main rule is that in order to move on to the next round you must get at least one kill. Forcing people to get kills instead of just staying at home hiding until the last day. The only way to stay alive is to stay dry. If your target tries to get you, but you shot them first it gives you 2 hours of immunity. 

Yes, there are many limits to the game. Most importantly, no one can be killed on school property or at a school event. I mean I think that’s pretty reasonable, otherwise the senior parking lot would be a “bloodbath” each day before and after school. 

To put the 3 pages of rules simply: don’t trespass, driver seat is safe, and no kills at school. 

 

Now that you understand the basics of what Assassin’s is. It’s time to talk about strategy for the game. 

What I have learned over the past week is that it is very nerve wracking to leave my house at all. At the same time that I am trying to not get killed, I also have to be planning how to kill my target. Just having to multitask that is stressful enough, but then there are the rumor accounts. Twitter is the platform used to say who killed who for each hit, this way everyone playing can keep track of who is out. The only account that is trustworthy is the one run by the people that organized the game. Every year since twitter has been used, there has always been so called “rumor accounts” that show up. 

These accounts get DM’s all day long, especially on weekends, about everyone’s plans. Then they post these rumors to help their assigns try to get the targets. The issue with these accounts is that you never know if what is posted is true. A lot of times groups of people will DM the wrong address of where they are hanging out to throw off their assassins. 

This makes it even more difficult to decide when to go after your target because sometimes they might be expecting you to try to get them. 

I think I have come to the conclusion that in order to stay alive in this game you need to tell no one your schedule. Learn information about your target from as many people as possible without them finding out. Take help when offered. But still never fully trust someone.

And may the best player win. 

Stay safe 😉