{"id":241,"date":"2011-05-24T23:23:15","date_gmt":"2011-05-24T23:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/?p=241"},"modified":"2013-09-24T23:25:54","modified_gmt":"2013-09-24T23:25:54","slug":"facing-life-and-everything-it-has-to-offer-by-zall-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/?p=241","title":{"rendered":"Facing Life and Everything It Has To Offer, by Zall, 14"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facing Life and Everything It Has To Offer, by Zall, 14<\/strong><\/p>\n

I believe that every person must experience life to it\u2019s fullest, especially when presented an opportunity, and accept all ideas with an open mind.<\/p>\n

As a traveler, a student, a musician, and a human, I\u2019ve experienced some extraordinary things.\u00a0 I was once traveling by local bus on a long winding road for a 12-hour ride from Luang Prabang to Xam Neau in Laos when the bus screeched to an abrupt halt beside a complex of dimly lit shacks.\u00a0 All the local folks streamed out of the bus and immediately dispersed like water into the many shops standing on the side of the road in formation, selling food items to the hungry travelers.\u00a0 Four big white people tumbled out of the local bus and everyone looked up.\u00a0 The spotlight was upon us.<\/p>\n

\"Sipping<\/a>

Sipping silk worm poop tea \u2013 REALLY (with a mulberry smoothie chaser in reserve).<\/p><\/div>\n

My family and I cautiously stepped out of the vehicle, knowing all eyes were watching.\u00a0 I was examining the food setup nearest us when I spotted one of those gifted moments.\u00a0 A friendly, skinny man sat hunched over a monstrous bowl, overcrowded with a colossal mound of greasy bugs.\u00a0 The kitchen fires and a single bare low-wattage fluorescent bulb behind the smiling man cast an eerie glow on the insects.\u00a0 As I got closer to the mound of dead creatures, I realized the myriad of amazing shapes:\u00a0 spiny, long, round, big, and small.\u00a0 This was too good to be true!\u00a0 A perfect opportunity had presented itself.\u00a0 My family came up behind me and we all agreed:\u00a0 we had to try some.\u00a0 We purchased the insects from the ever-smiling man, and his grin grew, knowing we going to try something new.<\/p>\n

My first pick was a large bamboo grub; the grease shone in the faint light and my stomach gave the usual \u201cDON\u2019T EAT THIS\u201d feeling.\u00a0 I closed my eyes.\u00a0 Now or never.\u00a0 I lifted the 3-inch grub to my mouth and took a deep breath.\u00a0 I could smell it: greasy, fried, salty, and juicy.\u00a0 The crowd that had accumulated around us became silent as we raised the greasy creatures to our mouths.\u00a0 With a final turn of my stomach, my body gave in.\u00a0 I put the grub in my mouth and bit down.\u00a0 The shell gently crushed between my teeth and the insides squirted like a gusher into my mouth.\u00a0 A river of grub juice ran over my tongue.\u00a0 My mind started to comprehend what I\u2019d just done, and my taste buds kicked in.<\/p>\n

\"Chomping<\/a>

Chomping on a large bamboo grub in Laos a few years ago.<\/p><\/div>\n

This is the part where I\u2019m supposed to tell you how incredibly gross it tasted:\u00a0 the awful flavor – it\u2019s slight tang resembling something sour and rotten; but this is what you think, because you\u2019ve never tried it.<\/p>\n

Like the time I tried \u201ccooked\u201d bat\u2026\u00a0 I\u2019ll leave that taste to your imagination\u2026\u00a0 Or maybe the time I woke up and had water buffalo organs with whiskey and beer at 8:30 in the morning.<\/p>\n

Or the time I tried rat\u2026.<\/p>\n

Or dog.<\/p>\n

People shoot down opportunities without even thinking of the possibility that they\u2019ll like something.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t try something, you\u2019ll never know what you missed.\u00a0 Life is too short to give up an opportunity.\u00a0 In truth, ten years later you\u2019ll wish you had tried that beetle.\u00a0 That is why I encourage every single one of you:\u00a0 the next time you\u2019re offered something different, strange or new, take a step back and think, will I regret not doing this in 10, 20, 50 years?\u00a0 I encourage every single one of you to try something new because if you don\u2019t take every opportunity in life and live it to the fullest, you\u2019re not truly living your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facing Life and Everything It Has To Offer, by Zall, 14 I believe that every person must experience life to it\u2019s fullest, especially when presented an opportunity, and accept all ideas with an open mind. As a traveler, a student, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244,"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions\/244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}