Your taste will inevitably change, so you might as well embrace the new

Again we are coming to the meaty article of the week. This topic is going to be something, I find to be meaningful and for the lack of a better word deep.

Change. Nothing is as inevitable in life as change. There is also this fear we all have with some of these changes. No one wants or embraces change all the time, especially if you are someone, like me, loves and embraces routines, but changes will happen. We could go to a dark place and talk about changes that no one really wants: a break up, the death of a loved one, the loss of a job and many more, but let's take something smaller and more fun and go along for a small ride.

This article inspired me to this: 'The secret of taste: why we like what we like'

The best part to me, is the one about beer and how that might be an 'acquired taste', the same can be said about coffee and then it brings the anecdote of legend producer Rick Rubin and how he did not like 'Pretty Hate Machine' by 'Nine Inch Nails' on the first listen.

Beer and good music! Man, what is not to like here. Turns out young Burnilein did not like beer when he first tried it. A shock to the system, your body and mind have to find out what that is, have to evaluate this feeling and the taste and form an opinion. It just made me feel funny the firs few times but it was also bitter and weird. So there was a beer that was closer to root beer than it was to this new taste - black beer. A similar thing happened when I bought my first Slipknot album. Before that I was really into Blind Guardian and Manowar and even though I have heard some Immortal tracks and even In Flames, that wasn't to my taste - it was too extreme. Too harsh and hard sounding. So having this Slipknot album in hand bought from my weekly allowance (that was more than a week of my allowance and coming home and putting the CD into my Hi-Fi system, I was shocked: I did not like it, I liked one song and only together with the video back in the day that my buddy pointed me to and that I waited a couple of afternoons for to show on Viva (the German MTV equivalent back then). I got sad, that I spend this money on a CD I don't like. I had to rest a day and was thinking about returning the CD which would have been another trip that would have cost time and money to the next big city. I listened to it again the next day playing Heroes of Might and Magic II. Something happened - there was a another song in there that I noticed and started liking playing the game. Later another one and another one and soon I liked the whole album.

I still do like that album and I liked it way more than on my initial listen. I know like almost all kinds of beers and I do like them way more that with my initial taste. Black beer is just alright.

My taste has changed, but just because I kept trying and put these experiences in different set-ups. Everybody should like beer. Beer is awesome and it is the most fun on beerwalks through cities. Hear me out on the music though. Let's talk about music and maybe food too, I have always been an adventurous eater and I like all kinds of food, so let me try to advocate for that little change that you could embrace and maybe like some new food or music.

And while it is super hard, I am not going to deny that, to embrace change and get through the loss of a loved one or a break up or the before mentioned dark inevitable changes, these two are easy and fun!

Music - climb out of that pop music or top 100 cave and start to see the real world outside of the cave. You are missing out. I can listen to all kinds of music (but reggae, that makes me aggressive, but that is only because I have slept 3 days next to a tequila truck on a festival that was blasting it and it's not entirely true, as I like Matisyahu for instance and possibly other bands/artists from that genre too). Pick a genre today and find one song in that genre you like, that you maybe get to love.

Food - go and have something new and incorporate it again and again. I come from a not so well off part of Germany and while I have never experienced hunger, but I know how it feels to ne be able to get some stuff that you would really like to try. My dad was always cool with having spaghetti with cheese and ketchup 7 days a week, but I liked it sometimes with Maggi sauce and cheese instead or other food altogether. I got into Jackie Chan movies at that time and saw food that I really wanted to try, it was strange, looked different and exotic to me. 20 years later I am in China and have tried these foods ad learned to love some and being okay of liking most. I cook hummus (my version of it) and I am not even sure my dad knows what that is. Go out and try something new, the worst that could happen is that it shocks you a bit and you might dislike it even, but it might be your next best thing or similar to beer or coffee or it might be just like my first listen to that Slipknot album and you learn to like it.

Any way I look at it, you will broaden your horizon, you might learn something new and it is the easiest change to embrace that I can think of right now. Do it and maybe you will learn to like every Ohrwurm I put out so far and will put out in the future. Everybody wins! And if you haven't yet, read the article because that one is great to.

Grow, burn, embrace the change and the new!