Some moments in life are so revolting that they stick with us forever. From barbecues to public transport, people have witnessed things that trigger instant disgust — the kind that makes your stomach churn and your brain scream “Get me out of here!”
At a family barbecue, my brother’s new girlfriend brought homemade potato salad. It tasted fine, but the next day everyone who ate it got sick. Later, a foul stench led me to the trash, where I found expired dressing packets hidden at the bottom — they were years past their date and smelled vile. I was both furious and nauseated.
Public spaces brought their own horrors. A woman once sat next to someone eating raw chicken at a bus stop in scorching Texas heat. On the metro, another woman casually blew her nose into her dreadlocks. In libraries and trains, strangers clipped dirty fingernails and flossed, flinging bits everywhere like it was normal.
Some incidents were beyond comprehension — like a mother letting her child sneeze into her mouth, a man chewing old gum from the subway floor, or a cockroach crawling out of a burger bun. These moments remind us that disgust is a powerful, visceral emotion… and some memories, once seen, can never be unseen.
