I realized something earlier this year: I don’t like bananas.

To be fair, I like bananas in smoothies, and I like banana bread, and other banana-themed baked goods. So I guess technically I like bananas in the proper context. Yet, while I don’t hate them, I don’t like bananas.

For years, though, I was in denial. I kept telling myself, maybe if I ate them before they developed those brown spots–but after they stopped being green–I would like them. After all, people kept telling me to like them, “They’re good for you!” “Lots of potassium!” Why not like them? Especially when they are so readily available in the grocery store at such a reasonable price? I tried and tried, but I never learned to love bananas.

Then, recently, I accidentally conducted an experiment. I happened to buy bananas at the store each week, thinking I would force myself to eat one every day as I walked out the door on my way to work (got to get that potassium), and if they started to brown a little, I’d thrown them in the blender with some frozen fruit before they became completely intolerable.

I started out buying five. I ate one or two, but the rest all turned brown, ending up in the freezer before finally being thrown in the trash when I realized I would never bother thawing them. Next time I bought four, ate one, and the rest ended up in the freezer as well. When I bought just three, they never reached the freezer. They stayed on the counter and not only browned, but began to shrink before I turned them into banana bread.

Those last three made me start to think: Why should I keep wasting my money, trying to force myself to like something I just don’t? Only because I’m supposed to like them? That’s not worth the cost. And that’s when I knew it: I’ll never love bananas because I don’t like bananas.

So I stopped buying bananas. There are plenty of other foods I can get potassium from. No more wasted dollars, ultimately thrown in the trash in the from of floppy, stinky, brown bananas.

Because everyone else likes them so much, I am sorry to say this, but it’s true: Bananas and I will never work together. But you know what? I’m fine with that. I don’t like bananas.