Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable: Exploring New Food

Introduction

Living this life, we all have to eat. Some people may enjoy eating and some may not, but food plays a major role in our lives. It's essential that we all need to survive. The crazy part about it is not having enough will destroy you, but then having way too much of it will do the equivalent. Keeping us alive isn’t the only thing that food does. It also makes us happy and thrilled. Food put smiles on many people's faces after dying from starvation. Food isn’t only a meal. It’s a lot more to it than just food. Growing up we all had that one delicious food that we can never get tired of. Even until this day we all still do. Some people may get tired of eating the same thing everything. Aren’t you ready for a change? If so, exploring different varieties of food is the form of being fun and adventurous. It’s an opportunity to expand your food spectrum by giving you more options to choose from. Additionally, young adults should try newly discovered food because it brings them out of their comfort zone and helps them get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Food as a Social Connector

Discovering a variety of new food helps bring people out of their comfort zone by making new friends and connecting with them in a way that’s unique. Food is more than just nutrition. It’s a way that people come together and do things with each other. For instance, Chi Alpha Club was hosting an event in sovi dining. They had international snacks and wanted people to try it. While I am trying the snacks, I spoke with one of the team members. We talked about each of them come to find out she loves eating as well. We all seem to have a good time and I ended up actually joining the club and I also made friends who actually had things in common with me. Coming out of your comfort zone and not being afraid to try new things in this world builds upon something bigger for yourself. People have this opportunity to not be afraid, but to make friends and share things together.

Being Uncomfortable with New Food

Being able to get out there and try new things helps you grow as a person. Trying newly discovered food brings people out of their comfort zone by increasing people's confidence and improve their creativity. People are able to learn about themselves they never knew about. Which can help you grow as a person. For example, I went to a Mexican restaurant and decide to try something new off the menu. There was this one dish that sounded nasty. Instead of assuming, I went with my gut and told myself that it will actually be good. Turns out it was actually good. I didn’t think that I was able to try it out, but my conscious told me otherwise. Knowing that people can just turn their negative thoughts into positive thoughts builds people's confidence. Just by taking a small step like ordering something different helps work towards self-confidence.

Inspiring Culinary Exploration

There’s a lot that people can learn just from eating a certain dish. Exploring new food brings people out of their comfort zone by being able to learn something new. Many people may have questions about what they eat, such as where does it originate from, how do you cook it and otherwise. Also it’s important for people to know what they are eating because later on they may want to go home and try to make it. For example, my grandma was cooking a dish originated from Haiti. Griot is Haiti’s Most loved dish. It made with fried pork marinated with different types of spices and added with fried plantains. While watching my grandma cook, I started to understand and learn how to cook. It was very nice to learn something I never thought that I would be able to developed. As I picked up one recipe, I started to get the hang of it and learned how to cook other dishes from my culture as well. Every time we do learn something new or even challenge ourselves to do things we never thought we could forever expand our comfort zone more and more. Tasting new foods and learning about the culture may even inspire people to go out and try to actually cook the dish. Nothing helps people more to grow as a person than just learning a new skill.

Conclusion

Bringing people out their comfort zone leads to a better outgoing life, and therefore discovering new food is one way to have that outgoing life. It’s always amazing to go ahead and try new things to come out of your comfort zone. It allows us to expand our minds into something bigger and better. Not being afraid to overcome our fears tells a lot about yourself. What people don’t realize is that they wake up everyday to eat the same thing everyday. Getting out there makes this aspect of our lives much more interesting and not having to think about the only reason we are here on this earth. Exploring different varieties of food helps people learn something new that they thought they couldn’t learn and enjoy doing. As much as we know how food is a substance that we need to survive , it’s actually more than that. Better yet , people connect more with other people just by having something in common like having a passion for food. So why not go out and explore what life has in store for everyone on this earth.

References

1. Godbey, Geoffrey. 'The Role of Food in Social Relationships.' Nutrition Today, vol. 42, no. 6, 2007, pp. 244-247.
2. Kolb, David A., and Roger L. Fry. 'Toward an Applied Theory of Experiential Learning.' Theories of Group Process, edited by Marshall Scott Poole and Andrew H. Van de Ven, John Wiley & Sons, 2005, pp. 33-58.