Pet Peeve: People That Refuse to Try New Things

(Some encouragement and tough love from a survivor of Stubborn Refusal to Try Anything New Syndrome) 

I was one of those kids that wouldn't try new things.

 I get it. Newness is scary. You know what you like. What's the point of trying that weird casserole your sister made? Other than, you know, manners.

I can actually remember not trying on a hat my aunt wanted me to try on when I was about 7. Now I will always wonder if I could have been a hat person. I could be one of those cute, artsy girls that rock fedoras and sun hats in the summer and look all Audrey Hepburn, or wear the cute little furry hats in the winter. But I just never think to buy hats...my life could be entirely different if I had tried that hat on. I could be an Audrey Hepburn look-a-like sitting on a beach with a handsome, hat-adoring man right now, rocking a floppy, be-ribboned sunhat, drinking a margarita. Instead, I am sitting in a basement, still wearing my dirty work out clothes because I stopped in the middle of exercising to write something down.

My parents made me try new food. It is to them I owe my ability to swallow some really nasty things.  Like the warm, melted-jello like soup my host mom fed me in Peru when I was sick. No, I did not finish it, but I was told I ate a whole lot more than most Americans.

 It was the texture that was the problem... 

But I don't mean to scare you, you scaredy-cat people. Because I also would have never known that I love asparagus and chocolate with sea salt in it 

(not together, but hey, I would try that too) if I hadn't tried them.

 Also, contra dancing and dresses with collars and French rap. 

I tried all those things at the suggestion of friends, and my life is more full and enjoyable because of it.

(The contra dancing was actually just some random man from Montana 

who was the buff-est person I have ever met.

 I was a little terrified I would be crushed 

in his muscles of wholesome, mid-Western goodness.)

My dress with a collar:

It has a collar on the other side too, naturally, but it is being obscured by this awesome bouquet. 

My fave french rap song: Sexion d'assaut - Désolé

Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of Montana man.

I work in a spice and tea shop now, and trying new spices is my very favorite thing. I sprinkle a little something new on my lunch each time I come in, and thus I have discovered that indeed, peppercorns are very, very peppery, and chocolate salt is still very, very salty, and something called Sweet Heat has more Heat than Sweet, but I love it anyway.

Also, you can make sushi salad. Seriously, it's a thing. 

This was in no way a mistake we tried to pass off as being innovative.

 But either way, it was delicious. 

The moral of the story is try things, you coward.