As I sit locked up in the library working on a final paper for my Capstone English course, I can't help but glance out the giant window to my left. Outside, the trees are all bare, their leaves gone weeks ago, and a cold wind blows across campus, forcing each and every student that passes by to be bundled up in any variety of coats, scarves, hats and gloves. The sun, now rather low on the Southern sky due to the approaching winter solstice, makes it look like morning until suddenly it switches to evening. We don't really have an afternoon anymore, and if we do, it's only for a couple of minutes, because by 4:30 the sun is gone and darkness has replaced the light.

I'm sort of strategic about where I sit in the library, usually gravitating to the windows even though I know I'll get distracted by the occasional action outside. After all, if the sun is only going to be around for a quarter of the day I might as well appreciate it while I can. By the time spring approaches months from now, I'll wish that I was outside rather than inside, and while the cold prevents some of that feeling now, I still long to be anywhere but this oversized table. I may be working on a captivating essay on the beauty of sacrifice in "Les Misérables," but that doesn't mean I'm not wishing I was out on an adventure.

I've been fortunate enough to travel a lot in 2016, including four trips to Florida and one large road trip from Wisconsin to Colorado and back, along with some smaller trips, and I've come to realize that there's a lot in life I'm missing out on. It was somewhere in the middle of my flight from Orlando to Milwaukee in July that I was hit with an overwhelming gratitude for how lucky I am to travel so often, and I realized that I'd be completely fine with traveling for the rest of my life. On a similar flight in October, I realized that by traveling, I'm creating an arsenal of personal experience that I can then use to write, whether it be immediately on the plane ride home or months later while sitting frustrated with finals.

For example, when I went to Colorado this summer, I explored multiple National Parks, and only weeks later I wrote an article for The Odyssey Online celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. As I traveled back from Florida after experiencing my first hurricane, I worked on a plot for a new short story that ultimately became a social commentary on the way our nation reacts during a natural disaster. And yes, I wrote an Odyssey article on hurricanes too. A stop in Marceline, Missouri, Walt Disney's boyhood home, led to a short story about a car salesman from Missouri in the 1950s, and while the reader may not be able to picture a car dealership where a bank currently sits on a corner in Marceline, the story was created from my fond memories of the town.

If we spend our lives sitting in one place, whether it be at a desk in the library or in our bedroom, we're never going to find inspiration. It seems to me that, as humans, we have a distinct need to find adventure. We need excitement. We need to explore and experience, and the ability to do these things comes with a choice to allow ourselves to.

You don't need to travel to Florida to find these experiences either, because you can find so many of them right outside your door. Get together a couple of friends and head to a local historical site or go on a mini road trip to a nearby city. Check out a museum. Head to the mall, but instead of shopping, grab a coffee and plop down at a table to observe what's going on around you. If you are in the library, spend five or ten minutes of your break time just taking in what's outside the window or on the shelves that surround you. Take a walk around a part of campus you haven't visited in awhile. Check out the new bakery in your hometown. The list goes on and on, and even if you aren't a writer, every experience you have can be added to a growing array of memories.

For the moment, I'll be continuing my library marathon, at least until this paper is complete and finals are over, but that doesn't mean you can't start planning your next adventure while waiting for your coffee order.