What is an Adventure?

As always, I start of my blog with new things I've learned. I think this is important because it makes me pay attention to my surroundings and it keeps me from forgetting what lessons I've learned. So, something new I've learned lately is that 1) The average human body is made-up of about 50 trillion cells! 2) One climbing pitch is equal to one-half of a rope length. One rope is about 60 meters long, so one pitch is about 30 meters long and 30 meters equals about 90 feet.

I love my friends. I have some of the best friends in the world. They support me, they make me laugh and they also make me think. One thing that my friends have made me think about lately (whether they realize it or not), is determing what exactly is an adventure?

A lot of the time we describe an adventure as taking on a new endeavor, traveling, seeing and doing something new and exciting. I have to admit, so far, I have considered my whole AmeriCorps service an adventure. I nervously left home, a place I love with folks that mean a lot to me, to move 1300 miles away to a place I have never been to, to do an array of projects that are fun, challenging, unknown and rewarding.

Right now I'm in that interesting stage of life where my friends are getting married, having kids, succeeding in their jobs, buying their first house, completing graduate school, etc. (Which, by the way, Congratulations to Nicole and Jeremy on the birth of their little girl this morning. Welcome to the world Dorothy Ann!) Lately a lot of my friends seem to be in awe of the continuous "adventure" I'm on right now, which is ironic because I think they're the ones on a real adventure. So this makes me think, "What is an adventure?"

One dear friend of mine says she loves hearing about what I've been up to and that now, because she's limited on her activities due to "life," expecting a boy in November and moving, she said she vicarously lives through me. I told her it's strange how life works because for so many years that I talked and longed to go on an "adventure" like AmeriCorps, I lived vicarously through her. One of the reasons I joined AmeriCorps was because my friend inspired me to live freely and I'm forever grateful to her wisdom and spirit. I also find it funny that she says her "adventures" are on hold for the time being because of her pregnancy...I told her motherhood will be a whole new adventure, full of twists and turns, but none the less rewarding.

Another dear friend of mine said she always knew that I would do something Huge (meaning moving to Utah to join AmeriCorps). When in reality, I think she's the one doing something huge. She's expecting her first child in February and her and her husband just built their first house. Another friend of ours is about ready to celebrate a one-year anniversary of helping start a real estate business and metting her goal of buying her first house by the end of the year!Huge doesn't have to mean that you're "changing the world" or doing something few others have done. Me and my friends are all in a spot where we are doing something huge. To me, "huge" means making progressive steps in our lives, taking on endeavors that make impacts on our personal lives. Although we're all taking on different things that are "huge" I'm so grateful that we're all able to share these moments together and celebrate each other's accomplishments.

So, I'm really not sure what the point of this post is; perhaps part of it is to brag on my friends, or to make others ponder what an "adventure" is. Whatever meaning you find out of this post, I hope you consider what kind of an "adventure" you want in your life. It doesn't have to be as big as joining AmeriCorps, having a baby, building a house, starting a business, etc. Life is full of possibilities, see where your feet take you. The soles of your feet is full of excitment, lessons and adventure...have fun out there and don't live vicarously through others, blaze your own pathsI!