An adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered"
G.K. Chesterton
my first blizzard
I pulled the moving truck into the apartment complex that would be my future home close to ten o'clock that evening. I yawned and shook my head trying to get my eyes to focus, I knew I still had too much to do before I could sleep. I had been up and driving since 3 o'clock the night before. Nineteen hours of driving a moving truck had taken its toll on my exhausted body.
I stepped out of the truck, feeling the snow crunch beneath my feet. I pulled my hood of my jacket over my head, shocked at the cold. It was the dead of February in Chicago and this southern boy had never felt negative temperatures before. I went to unlock the rolling door of the truck to pull out the mattress so we could sleep before moving the rest of the stuff in.
The wind kicked up and I instantly got homesick, thinking back to the state that had been my home for the last twenty five years. "What have I gotten myself into?" I asked aloud, each breath turning into vapor and then rapidly disappearing in the rising wind.
I stepped out of the truck, feeling the snow crunch beneath my feet. I pulled my hood of my jacket over my head, shocked at the cold. It was the dead of February in Chicago and this southern boy had never felt negative temperatures before. I went to unlock the rolling door of the truck to pull out the mattress so we could sleep before moving the rest of the stuff in.
The wind kicked up and I instantly got homesick, thinking back to the state that had been my home for the last twenty five years. "What have I gotten myself into?" I asked aloud, each breath turning into vapor and then rapidly disappearing in the rising wind.
This was all six years ago. My wife and I moving seven hundred miles away from what we knew as home. We moved with nothing but each other, our dogs and a job offer.
Every once in awhile when I'm ordering my coffee or making small talk with a bank teller my southern drawl will make an appearance. My Southern roots betray me. I'll hear the question I've answered countless times in the last six years "Where are you from?"
Staying polite (as a good southern boy would) I'll answer "North Carolina" and wait for the inevitable follow up question "What brought you out here?"
The answer is always the same: "A job and a sense of adventure."
Yes, the past six years have been challenging, but I've made some amazing friends. I've found a great church of mis-fits. I've had many adventures and I know that there are many more to come.
There's always something new out there. Something we haven't seen before, something we haven't experienced. And yet we cling to the boring, the comfortable, the familiar.
I'm convinced everyone is born with a need for adventure, to live fully. To experience what this world has to offer. Why else are there so many action adventures movies being released each year? Why else would so many of my generation immerse themselves so fully in video games? We long for adventure.
Why then do we settle so quietly for our little comfortable lives? Because it's easy. It's convenient. Nothing is asked of us. We won't have to step outside our comfort zone.
What risks are you not taking? What past experience that have seemed inconvenient could be looked at rather as an adventure?
Every once in awhile when I'm ordering my coffee or making small talk with a bank teller my southern drawl will make an appearance. My Southern roots betray me. I'll hear the question I've answered countless times in the last six years "Where are you from?"
Staying polite (as a good southern boy would) I'll answer "North Carolina" and wait for the inevitable follow up question "What brought you out here?"
The answer is always the same: "A job and a sense of adventure."
Yes, the past six years have been challenging, but I've made some amazing friends. I've found a great church of mis-fits. I've had many adventures and I know that there are many more to come.
There's always something new out there. Something we haven't seen before, something we haven't experienced. And yet we cling to the boring, the comfortable, the familiar.
I'm convinced everyone is born with a need for adventure, to live fully. To experience what this world has to offer. Why else are there so many action adventures movies being released each year? Why else would so many of my generation immerse themselves so fully in video games? We long for adventure.
Why then do we settle so quietly for our little comfortable lives? Because it's easy. It's convenient. Nothing is asked of us. We won't have to step outside our comfort zone.
What risks are you not taking? What past experience that have seemed inconvenient could be looked at rather as an adventure?
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