Remember Cy, who ordered the chicken hearts? When
I asked him what his motivation was he said, “Most of the time
when I order something that’s a little off the wall, the rationale is
like, ‘Screw it. Why not?’ I mean, what’s the very worst that could
happen? I’m in a restaurant. There are people everywhere. What
could possibly go wrong? I’m in a restaurant, so what could hap-
pen? There’s not much else to it.”
“I also think there’s an allure to trying different ingredients
I’ve never tried before. That’s pretty much the only reason I do it.
Like when I ordered pig blood stew. I remember the first bite I had
was kind of gross. There was a lot of – it had a metallic, iron-like
taste to it. I just told myself that I had to take a couple of more bites,
and then after that initial shock, it kind of tasted pretty nice. I’ve
definitely had pig blood or pork blood in other dishes since then.
I must not have hated it all that much.”
“Did you finish it?”
“Yeah, I finished it.”
“Is there anything that you wouldn’t eat – within
reason, of course?”
“No, not really. Once I ate fish eyeballs. Anything
goes.”
Once you’ve tasted fish eyeballs,there’s no going back, I guess.
~
It’s clear that high sensation-seeking can impact nearly every
aspect of a person’s everyday life, from food to jokes, art, media,
music, multitasking, and travel.
I checked in with the White Rabbit about a year after I first
contacted her to see how her journey went. She did it. 300 days
without spending any money and she visited 14 countries all
around the world. No doubt her high sensation-seeking personality
not only inspired her trip but also kept her safe from some of the
dangers to which she was drawn.
You never know where the white rabbit might take you, just
ask Alice.
For some high sensation-seekers the white rabbit beckons
them beyond wanderlust. It tempts them off mountains, around
bends, off cliffs and even into the mud.66 / Buzz!Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Access paid by the UCSF Library, on 11 Nov 2019 at 14:18:13, subject to the Cambridge