USA. A Mexican restaurant. We had not yet ordered anything, and the food was already arriving.
Chips. Salsa. Unrequested. Free.
I stopped the waiter. "We have not earned these."
"They just come with the table, man."
They come with the TABLE. In my land, hospitality is a debt. Every gift creates an obligation, weighed carefully, returned in the proper season with interest of feeling. Here, the gift arrives before you have even proven you can pay for dinner.
This is not an appetizer. This is a declaration: we trust you. Eat.
I ate with the gravity the moment deserved. And then — I must report this calmly — the basket emptied, and a new one appeared.
"Did we…?"
"Refill," the waiter said. "It's bottomless."
Bottomless. They have wells of salsa. The supply lines of this nation are beyond anything my ancestors imagined.
My friend warned me. "Don't fill up on chips, dude."
Too late. I had accepted three baskets. Honor demanded each one be finished — an unfinished gift is an insult. By the time my actual food arrived, I was a ruined man.
I was not hungry. I was not comfortable. I had been defeated by a courtesy.
Generosity that arrives before the request cannot be repaid. It can only be survived.
I know the rule now. I have made my peace with the basket. One basket. Two at the most.
Who am I deceiving. There is no number of baskets I would refuse. The trust of a nation is in that salsa, and I intend to honor all of it.
@RollGoats07@politicalmath@patio11 Check your policy/keep an eye on documents sent to you. It likely has an option to covert to a whole life policy without going through underwriting by a certain point. Will be rated based off your age at that time, but something to consider in case you’ll never be approved again
@ThePeoplesTacos@1053SS Usually it’s spelled out in the fine print. Sometimes it will roll over to the next year with the same protection, an adjusted protection, like top 10 for that next year, could be no protection, if the pick continues to remain with the team that trades it away, will turn into 2nd
The life of an entrepreneur can be brutally difficult.
But nobody talks about it.
Time for a stiff drink and a few words on some of the most stressful periods in my life.
@MichiganHelp@FrankBr05713205@DerrickEvans4WV What does this kind of tech cost? Are there ways around it once implemented, or can a student bring a device that goes around that network? Does this tech supersede or block their normal internet access through cell carrier data service?