In life, we "overcome" or try to overcome a lot of obstacles. For instance, those obstacles can be finishing school, finding a career path, or even something as simple as driving for the first time. The overcoming of these things is all backed by the same emotion: fear.

Fear is what drives us. I'm scared of hundreds of things, such as being stung by a bee, being hit by a car, flying in airplanes, the list goes on. But I still do (most of) these things because I choose to not live my life in fear. For me, the biggest obstacle I've overcame recently is picky eating.

There was a time in my life where I hated pizza. HATED it. For absolutely no reason at all, I was just a weird kid who convinced themselves they didn't like pizza. As you can imagine, this faded with time. But this is how it's always been for me. I try a food once, don't like it, and I'm scarred for life. Never again will I ever eat ____, until recently that changed.

I'm half Italian right? So I'm supposed to enjoy things like pasta and pizza of course, but then there's Italian beef, Italian sausage, and all these other meats I had never been a fan of. Recently, my whole family was over for Christmas, and for dinner we had Italian beef sandwiches. I was going to make myself a PB & J instead, because I'd never been a fan of the beef. But I took a risk, got over my "fear" for 5 seconds and just took a bite. I even went back for another sandwich, that first one was so good.

The second time this happened, I was invited over to my boyfriend's house for a steak dinner. Now, most people would probably never deny such an invitation, but I was hesitant. I've also never been a fan of steak. I had a couple slices, and honestly I still wasn't a fan. Which is okay, I ate everything I took, but it just wasn't for me.

So to my fellow picky eaters, I challenge you. I challenge you to retry some of the foods you've told yourself for years that you hate. Try something new, something you don't know if you'll like or not. The only thing that is holding you back is a small amount of fear and anxiety, and while it is currently driving you to not enjoy some foods, let it drive you to try things you're unsure about.

At the end of the day, if you don't like it, you don't have to eat it again. But isn't it better to try and fail then to never try at all?