A Is For Adventurous

Living on a 26' sailboat in New Zealand. Some might say that's adventurous. I'm not so sure.

During April, we're participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Every day (except Sundays), we’ll be doing an alphabet themed post starting with “A is for Adventurous” and ending with “Z is for Zinc”. We've got a theme for every letter sorted except for Y. If you have any ideas for the letter Y, please leave a comment or email.

Some people might say that we're adventurous. Sure, we've done some things that some folks might say are adventurous, but I'm not so sure.

I asked Scott the other day what was the most adventurous thing that he had ever done. He said, "Marrying you in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was the start of a big adventure." I'm not sure which part of that was adventurous for him - getting married or getting married in a foreign country. I decided not to question him to closely on this one, just in case I didn't like the answer.

I asked him if he thought learning to scuba dive in Thailand or climbing to the top of Angel's Landing in Zion National Park were adventurous and he said no - as they weren't experiences that were out of his personal comfort zone.

If you look up a definition of adventurous, you'll get something like, "not afraid to do new and dangerous or exciting things" or "characterized by unknown dangers and risks." Scott thinks that the fact that I went off alone to live in Senegal in West Africa for a summer when I was 20 years old was adventurous. I disagree. I wasn't afraid. It didn't seem dangerous or risky. It wasn't outside of my personal comfort zone. (Of course, I was probably just young and stupid at the time and didn't know better!)

I think what makes someone truly adventurous is the willingness to step outside of your own personal comfort zone. Not another person's comfort zone. Being adventurous isn't about trying to have similar experiences to those you read about in glossy magazine articles or in travel blogs. It is about doing something that personally challenges you.

Going to the grocery store around the corner might be incredibly adventurous to someone who has been a shut-in for over twenty years.

Going up to a stranger at a cocktail party and introducing yourself might be incredibly adventurous to someone who is highly introverted. Heck, even getting yourself to the cocktail party on your own could be adventurous for an introvert!

Selling everything you own and moving onto a sailboat and cruising around New Zealand might be adventurous to some. Buying a 13' camper with 65 square feet of living space and traveling around on it in the States in search of your next sailboat might be adventurous to other people. Sure, that's what we've done, but it doesn't seem particularly adventurous to us.

Our nomadic lifestyle just seems normal to us. Of course, it seems incredibly abnormal to most people! But it doesn't make it adventurous as we're not living outside of our personal comfort zone. At this point in our lives, if we bought a house and lived in one place permanently, that might be adventurous for us. It would certainly be outside of our comfort zone.

So next time you think someone is adventurous, don't assume they are. Their lifestyle might seem exciting and glamorous, even possibly filled with danger and risk, but it might not be adventurous for them. 

I like this quote by Eleanor Roosevelt.

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience."

I think life should be about experiences - the experiences that matter to you, not the ones you read about. Find your own sense of adventure - you can be adventurous in your own precious small corner of the world. You don't have to travel to far-flung parts of the world to be adventurous.

If you're a regular reader of our blog, then you'll know I don't normally write reflective posts like this. Usually, I write fluffy, silly little posts about our travels, but this time I decided to do something different. Something outside of my comfort zone when it comes to writing. You might even say it was a bit adventurous. 

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