I consider myself to be a picky eater. I’m not just referring to the vegetarianism. I’m a picky vegetarian. The list of stuff I won’t eat is way longer than the stuff I will. But I was blown away by watching one of the receptionists I went to the conference with eat (or not as the case may be).

We had a $15 lunch voucher each day. I found a buffet in the hotel that was $19.25 for lunch. It was a rip-off at $19.25 but since it only cost us $4.25 out of pocket it was quite a deal. It had a Mediterranean theme. Every day featured a new country. The day we all went there it was Spain.

It was wonderful. There were about 10 tables of food. It was 75% vegetarian. There were tables for bread and different dips. Tables of salads. Vats of different varieties of flavored rices. A table of dessert. Beans and tomatoes in many combinations. Marinated olives and on and on. I was in Heaven.

One receptionist came back to the table with a full plate and said that she didn’t know what any of it was. But she was eating and was super happy. She loved the food. The other one though kept saying that the food was weird. It tasted funny. She’d never seen anything like it in her life. It wasn’t the kind of food she was raised on. She would really rather have a hot dog. She was never coming back to this restaurant. The rice had something in it.

How can you live until your 40s and 50s and never have eaten rice with something in it? We kept telling her to be adventurous. She even called her husband in the middle of the meal to complain about what we were trying to make her eat. He told her to be adventurous. It was no use. She grumbled about that meal for the rest of the time.

It reminded me that it is easy to get so caught up in what we do in our lives that we forget to open the door to new experiences. Even if we are forced to try something new we may prejudge the experience so much that we can’t enjoy it at all.