At the age of 12, I contracted mono and had to stay home from school. During my illness, my mother prepared dumpling soup for me. While eating, I accidentally swallowed an entire dumpling, which became stuck in my throat, causing intense discomfort. I struggled to swallow it down and nearly choked to death. That night, I had a terrifying dream in which a massive dumpling pursued me around the house, like the boulder scene in Indiana Jones. The nightmare culminated in the dumpling crushing me, leaving me feeling utterly frightened when I woke up. As a result, I now harbor a deep-seated aversion to dumplings. They remind me of that traumatic experience, both in reality and in my dreams.
