I'll Try Anything Once: Another introduction

Prior Lake American

I want to start off by making it known that reporter Hannah Jones is in a better place now, and I’d like to believe she’s happier there.

Yes, our own Jones is no longer our own Jones — she accepted a position at City Pages as an online reporter.

Before she left, Jones asked me to adopt her brainchild, “I’ll Try Anything Once,” her mission to try anything and everything, at least once, and document her experience.

“I mean, you’ve already ridden a horse for the sake of journalism, so,” Jones said to me. And of course I accepted. When I interviewed for a job with Southwest News Media after I graduated from college in May 2017, Jones’ column (which she started in April 2017) was one of the articles I had said I loved reading.

Did it get me the job? No. But, luckily another position opened up shortly thereafter and here we are.

My goal is the same as Jones’ — I’m 23 years old and there are a lot of things I haven’t done and experiences I haven’t had. This column has a modified edition of the original three rules:

1. I will not do anything that will endanger my life, or anyone else’s. This means I will not take a “considerable amount” of hallucinogens and stimulants simultaneously, as was one suggestion.

2. I will not do anything illegal. That’s another strike for doing hallucinogens and stimulants simultaneously.

3. I will not do anything I’ve ever done before, so say goodbye to the paint balling, kickboxing at 9Round and haunted house experience dares. And though I might try it, I won’t write about something Jones already wrote about — which means looking for wild mushrooms, dancing polka on television, becoming an ordained minister, performing stand-up comedy, getting a tattoo, taking a pole fitness class, going to the world’s quietest place, doing parkour, trap shooting, reading runes, counting micro-aggressions, holding a snake or negotiating a raise.

I have plenty of dares but I’m greedy and I want more. If you’d like to send me a dare, email suggestions to me at mstanwood@swpub.com or call me at 573-355-4079. We also have a handy-dandy submission form. Let me know if you’d like to be appreciated for your genius idea, or if you’d like to remain anonymous.

I can’t promise I’ll be as funny or clever as Jones, but I promise I’ll try — and most importantly, I promise to try everything I can, document it for your information or just for hilarity and let you know: “Would I do that again?”