Nauseated
I’m stuck in the SFO airport and I just had a funny memory while I was sitting here. My stomach feels bad…
When I was five and in kindergarten I had a two month period where I was sick every single day at nap time. I remember it clearly. Only at nap time. Naps came after snacks, so it was probably a food allergy, but nobody ever put that puzzle together. Instead, they thought I was trying to get out of napping. What they didn’t know is that I would have done anything to sleep. I wanted to sleep, but as soon as layed down, my stomach hurt and my head throbbed. I would lay there and cry and eventually my teacher would show me the door and command me to the nurse’s office. I’ll never forget the first of those trips down the hallway. I didn’t know where the nurse was and I was terrified of walking alone and getting lost. I walked carefully holding my stomach until I finally found my way. A very tall (tall to me) woman hovered over me and said,
“What’s wrong? Are you nauseated??” I looked at her in horror. That sounded really bad. I had no idea what it meant, but it really scared me. Like Gremlin scary. I started crying again and collapsed on the floor. She repeated the question and I said “No!!’, so she asked more questions and finally gave up on me and put me in a bunk bed where I took my nap and many naps after that.
When I got home, I asked my mother at dinner what nauseated meant and she told me that it is when you are sick in your tummy and it hurts. Now it all made sense.
The next day when I went back clutching my stomach, I came in and said, “I am nauseated. I am Cyan and I am nauseated.” They always knew what to do after that.
For some reason this memory is a funny one to me. Who asks a child that? It was one of my first impressive words for sure. Now, when I am sick to my stomach, I sometimes say that I am nauseated and it makes me smile.
