I’m a “try new things” kind of person. I’ve tried a variety of different foods of different nationalities: English, Spanish, German, Polish, Chinese, Japanese, Mediterranean, etc. I’ve read a variety of genres: SF, fantasy, historical fiction, biography. I try different types of music and I watch all kinds of movies.
I think it’s essential to try new things. It broadens horizons, letting you enjoy different cultures or styles you never knew you liked before hand. Trying new things could count for more than just food, books, and movies. It could simply mean getting over nervousness and talking to new people, or deciding to take a class that you’re not sure if you’ll enjoy. See? Such a simple philosophy can be applied to certain areas and be progressive.
I’m always trying to convince my friends to try new things. Amber and Kelly both flat-out refuse to try sushi, and Kelly will not eat Chinese food because she thinks it’s all the same as something she tried and didn’t like. I laugh when I tell friends that I’ve eaten calamari or sushi or escargot, and they give me this repulsed expression. Hey, that used to be my look when someone mentioned sushi or escargot, but I tried both and liked both.
I’ve had a few “eat my own words” kind of moments. When working at the fair last year, I told my friend/coworker Debbie that I did not want to try deep-fried Oreos. I told her I would barf. Her mother and she both forced me to try one…and it was delicious. I had had the wrong impression in my mind the whole time, thinking the Oreo would come out of a deep-fryer looking like breaded chicken or something, but instead it was covered in pancake batter and came out soft and chewy and ridiculously bad for me all the same.
Try new things. Be different. You may be glad you did. And if you don’t like this new thing you’ve tried, at least you can say you took the initiative and tried it before bashing it, whether “it” was a food, movie, club, class, etc. You get the idea.
