My best friend's graduation ceremony starts in 10 minutes and I'm trying to suppress vomit at a Speedway.

It’s my third day on homemade Soylent—a food-replacing beverage made of nutrients in their raw chemical forms—and this is the second time I’ve made my friend Tom pull over on the way to the ceremony. I’ve been nauseous ever since chugging two glasses this morning, and every time I get out of the car, the fresh air helps just enough that I can’t make anything come up.

As I breathe deeply and wrestle down bile, Tom decides to wax philosophical. “I think every generation has its preferred word for vomit, and I think ours is ‘vom,’” he says. Speaking as someone about to vom, this does not help.