Adventure comes from the Latin words “advenire” and “adventurus," meaning “arrive” and “about to happen," respectively. Think back to when you were a kid. Don’t you remember that feeling when you knew with certainty that someone you loved was going to bring you a present? What about the time you walked through a place you had never been before? Did you get that tickled, excited feeling in your gut that told your legs to keep moving forward and your eyes to constantly scan your new environment? After watching the movie "UP," I’d like to officially dub that feeling “the spirit of adventure," and I think we can learn a lot from that theme.

The other night, I watched "UP" with some friends at my college. I love movies with a deeper meaning, so you can probably imagine that I love that movie for the theme of adventure that is so strong throughout it. One of my favorite quotes is from one of the main characters: "Adventure is out there!" For those of you who haven’t seen it, I’ll try to give an explanation without too many spoilers. An old man attaches thousands of balloons to his house and travels to South America because his wife always wanted to go there, but they never got the chance to because of life expenses and her untimely death (I cry every time). There’s my summary. I left a bunch of stuff out, so if you haven’t, watch the movie sometime! Anyway, on to adventure.

Recently, I haven’t felt the spirit of adventure much. My classes are just a little too in-my-face and most of the time I would love to catch up on some sleep rather than go trekking in the woods or find a fun new place on campus to exist in. That’s not to say I don’t feel it at all. When I pull a really good dorm prank, or when I go to get a sandwich at 12 at night, or when I think about the possibilities of where my education could take me, I feel it. The spirit of adventure is found in all of the random little activities we do that are unplanned.

You may try some of that stuff and not feel the spirit of adventure. That’s ok. Some activities are exciting to some people, others not so much. Now, you gotta go out and find that thing you love doing. That thing which gives you the energy to run a million miles or jump over the tallest skyscraper or write the longest book. I think that’s something a lot of people want to do, but never end up doing. Attaching thousands of balloons to my house then flying to South America isn't at all appealing to me, but doing something that is outrageous and beautiful and unique absolutely is. So why don’t we seek the spirit of adventure? Are we too busy experiencing life that we forget to live it?

I'm going to leave you with that question. Where can we find adventure? When we see something awesome and fun to do, why don't we jump at the chance? Will we wait for the spirit of adventure to come to us?