When I was in elementary school, I would come home at around four o’clock after walking home. I would hike up the long paved pathway, unlock the door, and emerge in the kitchen where my mom would ask questions about my day.
“It was good.”
That was all I said because something else was on my mind. I threw my backpack in the corner of the kitchen, gave my mom a quick goodbye, and I was back outside. I was itching to be back outside, to explore, to be active. I would find delight and peace in climbing the fence in my backyard and trekking to the tops the trees in the forest, riding my bike to the end of the main road, or exploring my artistic skills with sidewalk chalk. I wanted to explore everything in the nonetheless small town that I grew up. I saw so much to discover in such a small place.
And now, as a college student, this eagerness to learn and explore still remains. I want to experience everything, travel everywhere, and feel every emotion. This unwavering urge to explore is a fundamental trait in any explorer.
All adventurers out there see the beauty in any environment. We see opportunity everywhere; an opportunity to learn, an opportunity to discover, an opportunity to challenge ourselves. As a college student, I am enthused by everything life has to offer, from an adventure to the Natural History Museum to a new internship opportunity around the corner. Everything excites me because I know there is something to be learned everywhere I go.
Along with the passion to explore, my biggest fear is to not experience everything. I am afraid I will wake up one day with my passion for exploration faded and my collection of life experiences lacking the zest and vivacity that I hunger for now.
My advice would be to surround yourself with people with this same determination to live their life to the fullest. As much as we don’t like to admit it, our friends and our companions change us. We acquire their mannerisms and traits purely because we spend time with them. And that’s ok, because it means we are getting closer to people we care about. However, before building these relationships, recognize that, as a fellow adventurer, you want to experience everything this world has to offer.
Some mornings, I woke up and realized that relationships with a best friend or a significant other have changed a fundamental part of my being; I have become content with ordinariness. I wake up no longer itching to experience everything, and instead, content in normality, and a life lacking adventure.
In response, every day, try to give yourself one exquisite moment. And as a life adventurer, this means giving yourself a moment of exploration, a moment of learning, a moment of absorbing something different that this life has to offer you. Remember who you are. Remember how you feel when you explore and discover. And make a promise to yourself that the rest of your life will be a splendid adventure oozing with discovery, education, and anything you make it. Make your life a collection of moments of exploration, because as life explorers, that’s what we love to do.
