Refining my palette

I still remember the first time I had sushi. It must have been in grade 8 or 9, on a Saturday night. I remember that I had skating the next morning. I always had skating Sunday morning and hated it. I'm not a morning person, so waking up for practice was torture. I remember trying to shave off my "getting-ready" time to maximize my sleeping time by going to sleep with my contacts on. Those couple of seconds would make a huge difference. I stopped rather quickly however, because, well, sleeping with your contacts on really really sucks. And the time that it take for you to get them feeling back to normal again, it pretty just as long (if not longer) as it would take to put them in in the first place.
Anyway, my cousin and his (at the time) girlfriend (now, wife) took my brother and I out for sushi. The real stuff. Raw ingredients included. I was totally freaked out, but did try a little bit. I hated it. I remember being pretty grumpy about it as well. I guess I just felt like there was nothing that I could eat. I'd had seaweed before, so that part of the rolls didn't creep me out...so by default, it was the raw fish. My brother seemed ok with the stuff, if I remember correctly.
Up until a year or two ago, I was still scared to try the stuff. I didn't mind California Rolls and other rolls that had tempura or other cooked seafood items in it, but the raw stuff was no good. And I wouldn't even think about sashimi. One day however, I decided to give it another go. I was eating with a group of people and the plate included a variety of different things (cooked and non-cooked) so if I was completely repulsed by the raw stuff, I would still have food to eat.
Funny how your palette changes with age. I remember hating the taste and texture of the stuff, but now, I like it. I quite enjoy it.
There's a couple other things that over time, I've just all of a sudden realised that I don't mind eating. Things that I remember detesting when I was a child, but now, I enjoy. Black licorice...eggplants, for example.
One thing that I have not developed the taste for is alcohol. I don't know what it is. I actually think my aversion to alcohol is getting worse. Even smelling the person beside me, or at the table drinking the stuff is enough to make me noxious. I really wish it didn't.