Things, to Your Great Astonishment, You Discovered You Liked

-Olives, after a senseless 30-year prejudice against them
-Exercising
-Buying quality art supplies (http://www.generalpencil.com/index.cfm)
-The CFL
-Kirk Franklin's gospel-singing reality show
-Birdwatching
-Lebanese noodles and potatoes
-Katy perry

 

Recently, I've developed an appreciation for sushi, though it's overpriced. But the one that stands out to me from my past is Metallica, which then led to heavy metal. Growing up, I mostly listened to rap and classic rock. I have a metal-head cousin, but I had mostly dismissed the genre. Then, in college, I gave Ride the Lightning a real chance and loved it.

 

Sex. I found out that vaginas are awesome.
Alt-country. Grew up a metal-head, I'm confusing my wife the last 2 years.
Soccer. Pretty much obsessed over the last few years after laughing at it prior. Thank you XBox FIFA 07.
Romantic comedies. I can at least let my wife pick now and I don't always hate them. I mean...usually has hot chicks in a bra/panties scene.

 

Lobster and king crablegs. I didn't like any fish except for tuna and flounder for the first 30 years of my life.

Oldies music. I used to groan whenever my parents would put it on. Now, I listen to some songs.

 

Gummy bears. For years, I thought they had to be disgusting, but it turns out I like them a lot.

 

Eminem, some other rap and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I've had a visceral dislike for any rap newer than vintage Run-DMC until my son got me listening to Eminem. Now, I work out to some of his stuff.

 

Bluegrass music. Where I grew up, the biggest insult one could hurl at you was to call you a hick, so you consciously avoided anything remotely "country." Grew out of that culture, discovered the stuff was awesome.

Small-college sports. I consciously went to Big State U in part because I wanted the experience of covering & following a major college's sports teams. My first job out of college was in a Div. III town, and I covered the women's basketball team pretty closely. I then married a girl who graduated from a different Div. III school and she demanded I skip one of my alma mater's football games to go to her homecoming so she could show me around. I now probably follow said D3 school more closely than I follow my own alma mater's football program. That their winning percentages are often a direct inverse proportion has nothing to do with it, I think .

 

first you hated her vagina and now you love it ... i can see how that would confuse her.

 

Tom Petty.

 

Jon Benjamin Has a Van, the short-lived Comedy Central show. Everyone told me how awful it was when it ran. Then I watched it on Netflix and laughed my ass off.

 

Banana peppers, as a gateway food to normal foods. I was a picky eater as a kid until I decided to give banana peppers a try; for some reason that sparked a gastronomic curiosity, and I now will eat just about any culturally vetted (and safe) food item.

Sports. Really. Hated them as a kid. Thought they were all boring as hell. Didn't give a crap about them until I was 18.

 

guacamole