I hate coffee, and I have been surrounded by it my entire life—from when I was little going to the truck stops with my grandpa—all the farmers would come in, order coffee, sit at the round table, talk about the crops, talk about the livestock. The smell that came wafting over from their table was crisp and sweet. I loved that smell and looked forward to the aroma every time my grandpa took me to the diners.

Naturally after having this experience for many years I decided the next time I went to Six Mile truck stop that I would order myself a large steaming cup of Joe. I thought for sure I would love it –the smell was to die for. So one day my grandpa took me to the truck stop, and when I got to the table I turned the coffee mug on the table right side up. This way when the waitress came over she knew to pour me some of that sweet smelling pick me up. She poured the cup and moved on. I looked into the mug filled with this brown liquid and thought to myself, “I don’t know how something could look so bad but smell so sweet,” I picked up the glass and took a little swig…. Gag!

This was the worst tasting liquid I have ever encountered in my life. How deceiving it was, to smell so good and taste so bad. My grandpa saw the look on my face, and laughed, he smoothly drained his mug full. After this experience I learned something very valuable that I would use for the rest of my life. Not everything is what it seems, the good or the bad. You can’t judge a book by its cover, and you can’t judge coffee by its smell. In reality this was probably an insignificant moment, but I found importance in the moment. To me this wasn’t only a bad experience but a good one as well. I came to the conclusion that yes the coffee sucked, but how would I know I didn’t like coffee if I had never tried it.
I have found that I have been fortunate enough to travel to many places and experience many new things. I won’t lie I have been scared to try things, for instance China; their food can be very intimidating for an American, especially one that used to be a picky eater. When served, their fish still have the eyes in it. But the coffee incident just reminded me not everything is what it seems. So I went ahead and tried at least a little bit of everything. I found some of the most horrible looking items were the best.


Coffee is still disgusting to me, but I have never regretted trying it, in reality I would buy coffee and make it for the smell alone. What I learned was priceless, and because of it I experienced another culture better than if I would have been hesitant. Just because the drink was terrible, even though its smell was so good, didn’t detour me from trying new things. Today I like to try new things at least once, you only live once.