Adaptability

This is something that I've been thinking about lately and, to be honest, it's been bugging the shit out of me. People don't seem to realize how incredibly adaptable humans (and most other animals, for that matter) are. They act like our tastes, preferences, tolerance levels, abilities, are just inborn qualities that we can do nothing about. Which is a complete load of shit. We have a nearly endless ability to adjust to our surroundings. The only reason people can't adjust to things is because they don't make themselves do it. We get stuck in unhealthy patters because we refuse to accept the fact that we can change those patterns if we want to. We can not only make ourselves do the things we know we should do, we can make ourselves enjoy them. We can learn to like healthy food, exercise, being outdoors, etc.

Of course, my favorite example of this is veganism. I don't know how many times I've heard people say things like "Oh, I could never be vegan. I don't like vegetables." Well guess what, motherfucker? If you just made yourself eat vegetables for a little while, you would like them. I like all sorts of things now that I never used to like. A couple of years ago, I tried quinoa. I didn't like it; I thought it was weird. Then recently I started reading about how good it is for you, so I tried it again. I made myself eat it for a little while, and now I love it! I eat it every day. We like what we get used to. That's just how we are.

This isn't just about food though. This goes for everything in our lives. I mostly started thinking about all of this because both of my parents, on separate occasions, mentioned how they can't sleep if it's too noisy (it was also partly because of Arrow, but I'm trying to stay away from TV references for this post). I know this is a big issue for a lot of people, and it makes sense. But there are people who live in big cities, where there is traffic all night. There are people who live in war zones. Do you think those people just never sleep because of all the noise? No, they got used to it. Just like people get used to cold, or heat, or wind, or rain, or whatever other conditions happen to exist wherever they are. If you deal with something long enough, it becomes normal.

The thing that bothers me the most about this though, is when people do this with their kids. There are so many people who just let their kids be sickly all the time because "They only like junk food." First of all, why do people even give their kids that stuff in the first place? and second, do you really believe your kid is going to starve to death if you don't let him eat hot dogs every day? No! He'll get hungry and he'll eat whatever is there. I'm not saying you should force-feed your kid brussels sprouts, but you could easily offer a couple of healthy options and let her pick the one she wants to eat. Just FYI, I follow a lot of vegan parents on Facebook, Pinterest, etc. and I've never seen a single one of them comment that their kid won't eat healthy food. Do you know why? Because that's what food tastes like to their kids. That's all they've ever known. I would be willing to bet that if a kid who was raised vegan ever tasted some greasy fast food hamburger he would think it tasted like shit, because that's what it really is and he hasn't been taught otherwise like most kids have. Sorry, rant over.

They adapt.