Responding with Memoirs
The first time that I was introduced to unfamiliar food would be the first time I ate fish. I was at my best friend’s house and her mom had made dinner. Now for most that’s not too bad but after growing up in my family ever since I could remember our only pets were fish since the places we lived would not allow us to get bigger animals. I grew to identify that fish are pets even if they are not very good one or very fun at all. Either way I see fish as something to have around the house that you take care of and not as food. To say the least it was an immense shock would be putting it lightly, to be served a meal of mainly fish, especially seeing it how it was placed on the plate still entirely whole which made me actually have Goosebumps.
As the plate was served to me I was completely and utterly speechless, and in a very unfortunate situation. I did not want to appear rude by refusing the meal, seeing as how a fish doesn’t really overwhelm most people as most households normally serve fish sticks, or fish prepared in different ways. Yet I knew with every fiber of my being I did not want to even touch my meal with a 10 foot pole. All I could do was stare which as many individuals know the when dealing with the whole mind over matter thing, staring at the object which is causing you distress can make the whole situation go from bad to worse. I was at a loss, so I turned to my best friend for help or guidance on what I should do, without insulting her mother’s feeling or the meal of course.
However my best friend took this whole situation as many best friends tend to do when placed in a circumstance such as this one. She thought my expression was one of the funniest things in the world, She even wished she had a camera to take a picture of my face. She had, of course had known what we were going to eat beforehand and had thought that it would make for a funny memory and a great new experience. And what an experience it was. Luckily for me, after much explaining from my part and a few chuckles from hers about how every day brings something new. Her mother was kind enough to offer to make me something different to eat. However being brought up in my family we were taught since a young age that you eat what is offered to you especially when it was made for everyone else, unless of course you’re allergic or something to that extent.
After I repeatedly said no thank you to her making something else for me she was sympathetic enough to remove the complete fish that was on the plate in front of me. I was entirely willing to simply make a meal out of the side dishes. She wasn’t having that though and decided to make fish tacos for me out of the plate. Consequently I was slightly disappointed in not getting completely out of having to eat the fish and got over the initial shock upon realizing what I was about to do. I decided that I was going to have to man up and at least try the tacos, since it would only be rude to refuse after she had been so kind as to try to make it more to my liking. So I did what everyone has learned to do ever since they were little and forced to eat something they didn’t like the taste or texture of. I masked the taste by piling on salsa that was served with it.
Though that day I tried a food that I would have normally steered away from, I learned that fish isn’t all that bad. It certainly helps when you can hardly taste the fish, due to the strong delicious flavors of tortillas, salsa, salt and lemon. The whole time I was eating the fish I was making sure to think of other things so I wouldn’t focus on the thought of the fact that I was consuming fish. As I was thinking of other things a song I like by a band called Blood On The Dance Floor kept coming to mind, especially the lyrics “Open your mind to something big, step out of the world in which we live” granted the song is talking about uniting everyone through love, It still made sense to my situation I had always assumed that everyone ate the same types of things My family and I did at home. I realized that I needed to begin thinking how everyone is different and I can’t always assume that they will rearrange their lives or in this case meals for me. So I need to “step out” of what I was accustomed to and learn to be more open and willing to try more things. This is something that to this day I strive to do.