Finding a Little Adventure in the Most Unlikely of Places

There is something about the predictable patterns of modern life that can really get you down. Unlike our heroic forefathers who scratched out an existence from a harsh landscape, nearly everything in the modern world is made to be easy.

Want a meal, throw something in the microwave. Want a steak for dinner, then head out to your local grocery store and pick out a winner. Even if you wanted to go “old school” and go forage on your own, I doubt the local authorities would appreciate you walking down the street, rifle in hand, ready to throw some lead (at least they frown on that here in the People’s Republic of Northern Virginia)!

Recently (on a typical Tuesday) I decided that I’d overdosed on spoon-fed comfort and that I needed a little adventure ASAP. Fortunately, at the exact moment I was having my adventure nicotine fit, I was given an unusual gift, a serious “no screwing around” rainstorm. I know what you’re thinking, what kind of a gift is a rainstorm? At best, they’re good for helping you avoid watering the lawn. At worst, some well timed rain might jump out and crash that big “first-date” with the cute girl you met at the climbing wall (unless she likes seeing you drip moisture like a tired, old diaper)!

The whole situation reminded me of a rare moment that I was actually paying attention during a freshman English class in college. You probably sat through the same lecture, the mind-numbing one where the professor describes the various types of conflict in literature. Now I certainly don’t recall all the specifics, but I seem to remember a few of the big conflicts like man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. society and man vs. himself. What a gift it was to combine a rainstorm with a fleeting vision from college! Suddenly I realized that it was within my power to jazz up a potential boring chapter in my life and replace it with something that was, dare I say, cool.

As I prepared to “cowboy up” and escape the bonds of suburban comfort, I headed out into the driving rain with at least 3 of the 4 aforementioned conflicts at work (wish I could have covered all four, but it would have been a little Neanderthal to pick an argument with another person just for the sake of a check-list)!

At last I loaded up every piece of foul weather gear I own and headed out the door. Also, please remember, this was not your average little summer shower, as we used to say in Kansas, this sucker was a real “gulley washer.”

So what’s the point of this rambling soliloquy?

As I walked past the traffic on the side of the road I felt an immediate surge of excitement. There was nothing easy about the hike down to the grocery store, which was a little over a mile away. Massive rain, driving wind, horrible visibility, and the fantastic looks from the people in their cars who were thinking, “that dude is friggin nuts.” However, I’ll tell you the funny part about the whole process, the more times I received the “asylum is missing a patient” look, the better I felt.

It is so convenient to take the easy path in life. How often are we really tested, either by ourselves, our peers, or our environment? Days turn into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years, all on the same hamster wheel of comfort and risk avoidance. I’m assuming that you want to make a change, or at least share experiences with a community of folks on this site that are interested like you are in “Experiencing Adventure.” Sometimes we all make life too complicated. Sometimes you just need to get out there and live with a little attitude.

Maybe living the adventure life at its most basic level is choosing to live adventure every day. Some days that might be a great climb, run, conversation, cultural activity or expedition. Another time it might be as simple as choosing to hike a couple of miles in a big-time rainstorm. At a minimum, I got out of my comfort zone, I got to utilize a lot of cool gear that was just crying out to escape the closet, and I got half my neighborhood to pass me by thinking I was nuts (sounds like a hat-trick to me)! I can tell you, for any of the options I had available on that particular Tuesday, this was as close to a summit attempt as I was going to get. Adventure can show up in your life in a lot of different ways, even in ways you might not have expected, so get out there and try something new, the looks you’ll get and the way you’ll feel are priceless!