Everybody has had a headache at some point; that's just normal in life.

You get stressed/don't have enough food or water/are in a loud place for too long, and your head begins to pound. Things are too loud, too bright, and it feels like your pulse is flicking against your brain. Totally a normal part of life. Totally something that can be powered through with enough water, pain relievers, and breaks to breathe.

I, along with nearly 13% of Americans, get migraines. I actually get them more than I have headaches. I feel weak, I feel like vomiting, even the dark is too bright and silence too loud, and I need to take a prescription then sleep half the day in order to be functional again. They come from stress, which is great because "just stress less!" is useless advice.

As I type this, my head has a band of pressure around it and my neck muscles feel like they're trying to squeeze into my cranium. The fan I have on to keep me cool (because migraines make me extremely hot) is buzzing in my ears, and my saliva is thick. All I want to do is sleep, but alas, I have adult things to do. So here are the 21 things I would rather do with my life than suffer through hours of feeling like I'm going to die:

1. Play video games

I can't even do video games when I have migraines. Even with the sound muted and brightness to minimum, I can't. The motions on the screen nauseate me. It's horrible.

2. Be unproductive on the Internet

Everyone would rather be unproductive on the Internet than do anything. That is still the case with migraines.

3. Read

Imagine if I could read instead of having a migraine. I would get through so many books. It would be amazing.

4. Continue my creative endeavors

As a creative writer, I have several characters collected and worlds to build. I like to work on these characters and make them more human, even if it sometimes ends with me completely scratching several character traits and restarting four times. And creating new worlds is difficult.

What are the cultural differences between kingdoms? What are the differences within kingdoms, based on towns? And where does the magic come from? What makes certain people able to wield magic? Why are there different kinds of magic? Why can some people do this kind of magic but not the other? There is a lot to this that readers never see.

5. Watch YouTube or Twitch

I can't even watch entertaining videos. No cute cat videos to make me feel better. No favorite Twitch streamer to make my bad day easier. Just silence or the sound of my fan to keep me cool. It's boring.

6. Hang out with friends

This is another pretty obvious one, as much people would rather do that than anything else. Still totally true with migraines.

7. Write another article

Honestly, this was not the article I was going to write today. This is not an article I had thought about writing at any point ever. But when the migraine strikes and you can't write what you want to, you settle for complaining about migraines making life pretty much miserable and unproductive.

8. Reorganize my entire closet

Okay, so I'd rather reorganize my entire closet than do a lot of other adult things, but still. I would prefer to tear everything out of my closet, decide my new method of organizing, and put everything back together.

9. Work out

I'm lucky if I can put proper clothes on for the day. Getting into workout gear, going to my apartment's fitness center, and getting on the treadmill or cycle for any amount of time is not going to happen. I would like to get to work out, since that's supposed to help with literally every kind of health issue ever.

10. Do the laundry

While I only have one load of laundry to do today, this is a typical thing I need to do when I have a migraine, and I would much rather sort through my dirty laundry, fold things out of the dryer, and put things away than lay in bed wishing for the end.

And to anyone who says "tossing things in the washing machine isn't that hard": kindly shut your face hole, washers and dryers are loud enough when everything isn't amplified by twenty and makes you want to puke all of your intestines.

11. Cook an actual meal

Believe it or not, I don't cook myself actual food when the smell of food (and the movement required for cooking) make my stomach churn in the most horrific of ways. If I can manage it, I make myself instant noodles and force them down. If I can't manage that, I eat a variety of snacks and hope it staves off hunger.

12. Work on my thesis

To graduate with Highest Honors at SHSU, you need to write a miniature version of a thesis. It's 40-60 pages over two semesters, and it wrecks lots of honors students. Even though I have spent two hours doing research and finding nothing of use, I have to do it eventually.

13. Try drawing

I am not artistic, and I have pretty much given up ever drawing anything semi-decent. I would gladly give it a try again, along with all of the failure and sadness, if it meant never having another migraine.

14. Fully clean my cat's litter box

I scoop my cat's litter box regularly, like every good cat owner should, but I fully clean her box way less than I should. If I do it once a month, it's a miracle. With how bad her 'creations' smell, I should do it every two weeks. It isn't very pleasant, but I would rather do that, along with accidentally touching her pee at least once, than have a migraine.

15. Do the dishes

I hate washing dishes. I'd rather unclog a toilet. But I'd rather do the dishes than have half my day wasted because of a migraine.

16. Study grammar mechanics

I work as a writing tutor, write articles, and write creatively. I need to know grammar. I need to know it intimately. It's not an easy thing to learn, but I should know it well. I would rather learn confusing rules about this language (that will probably give me a headache at some point) than just naturally have a migraine.

17. Attempt to be good at social media

Writing articles requires some sort of media presence to get said articles out there for people to read. That's totally fine. Social media is exhausting, so I'm totally fine with opening my Twitter to zero notifications and never consistently updating my Facebook. But if I spent my migraine suffering time on honing my social media skills? I would be awesome at it.

18. Apply to internships

Migraines are difficult to deal with, but internship searches are also difficult. I would rather spend time trying to get one instead of suffering from my migraines. Maybe then I would have gotten one.

19. Make my bed

Why does anyone make their bed? I don't know, but I would rather spend my time making it look pretty (just to wreck it in twelve hours) than laying in it, totally useless.

20. Find things to sell

I'm not a hoarder, I just like my things. But I also need money because I am a poor college student with a job that doesn't totally cover my bills. If I was told I could avoid my migraine by selling some of my things (or at least finding things to sell and making an active attempt at selling them), I would immediately do it.

21. Deep clean my apartment

This is something that I really don't like doing because I am super lazy, but I'd rather do that for four to six hours than have a cold cloth on my head as I attempt to sleep away the constant tension and low-key nausea.

I would happily trade my migraine for scrubbing my shower, toilet, and sink; vacuuming all the floors in my apartment; cleaning the gunk from my stovetop, oven, and toaster oven; clean all windows and mirrors; dust everything from my numerous shelves to on top of my fridge; and cleaning out the entirety of my fridge along with cleaning the individual shelves.