Here's the gross thing that I remembered instantly when I saw this thread: When I was an undergrad at Cornell we had to dissect a cow's eyeball in biology. It wasn't the eyeball so much that bothered me but the smell of formaldehyde that followed me to lunch and for many weeks after (in my head). Oog, that smell. Blechh.
"My predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved;I have been given much and I have given something in return...Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and an adventure." O. Sacks