“When I was at IHOP, I was eating dinner with my family, and we got cheese sticks as an appetizer. I started eating my cheese stick, but the cheese was heated in a long string. I decided to swallow it, because it wasn’t working. I couldn’t chew off the cheese.

When I tried to swallow it, it would not go down. The cheese was dangling down my throat. I started choking, and I couldn’t breathe. My family was just staring at me while I was choking.
I reached down my throat and started pulling it out like how clowns pull out handkerchiefs from their mouths.

Thomas said, ‘Oh. She’s fine. She has her hands down her mouth.’

After I pull out all the cheese, I started coughing.

I said, ‘You guys were just watching me. You didn’t help. You guys would let me die.’

They said, ‘No, you had your hands down your throat. You’re fine.’

That was my favorite memory because they just let me choke.” – McKenna Tyson (‘17), about a memory with her siblings Malik (‘16) and Thomas (‘17).