Migraine

My migraines are the oddest thing. They always strike when I least expect it. They are always preceded by an aura of jagged lines in my right eye. They always scare me.

The first time it happened I was 25. I was at work. I thought I was having a stroke. It scared the shit out of me.

Now, I know what it is, and I usually try to pretend it isn't happening for a few minutes. But it is, and I have some very strong medication I take to ward off the headache that is sure to follow with 30 minutes.

So, I took the medication, two advil, and carried on teaching my class about the vast size of the solar system. We walked it.

We put the sun (a soccer ball) on the corner of 29th and St. Christophers and we started to pace off the distance to Mercury, then Venue, then Earth etc.

Mercury was the size of a pin head. Earth and Venus were peppercorns, Jupiter was a macadamia nut, Saturn, a hazel nut, Neptune and Uranus were coffee beans. Well, you get the picture.

We paced off 1019 paces(every pace = 3.6 million miles) to get to Pluto from the sun. One kilometer. The top of the hill we have been walking since January. How weird. Every morning my class and I were walking from the Sun to Pluto and back. Weird. And in the vastness of it all I am just a tiny invisible speck on a peppercorn. And one with a migraine to boot!

So in the big picture, I mean, the really big picture, me and my migraine are pretty insignificant. But, still, some say Hildegard de Bingen received her inspiration and revelations from her auras that may have been visual migraines.

I took my migraine to bed after school and slept deeply for 2 hours. As always, I awake slightly hung over from the medication and yet pain free.

Why am I writing about this? I don't know. But, I know that there is some mystery involved with my migraines. Perhaps it is a mystery as large as our solar system. Perhaps if I keep looking up, and looking out I will find the answer deep within.