The Case for Constantly Seeking Out New Adventures

Through a series of unfortunate events in college, I ended up studying abroad in an Italian city I didn’t want to be in. My options were clear: go home (not going to happen), stay there and hate it (not very much fun), or remain and learn to at least tolerate it (the obvious choice). I went for the latter, and after six months I had undergone a transformative experience, realizing that I was significantly more adaptable and self-assured than I thought.

I learned to think about certain aspects of American systems in new, more critical ways rather than taking them for granted as the way things "just are." I experienced the beauty that can come from dropping expectations and appreciating things as they are, whether they’re the way I want them to be or not. And just like that—the case for seeking out new adventures had been made.

Always Go

While there’s certainly something to be said for a healthy routine, there’s no better way to appreciate it than by leaving it behind for a while. After living in Nicaragua for a bit where everything is a constant barter, especially for foreigners, I came home and appreciated how easy it was to buy avocados for a set price in a way that never would have crossed my mind before.

Travel also ups your engagement with the world around you. When you airdrop yourself into an unfamiliar land, you have to pay attention to your surroundings. Especially if you don’t have international cell service—you’ve really got to pay attention to the streets and landmarks around you because Google Maps isn’t going to be there to bail you out. You gain a sense of mindfulness from navigating a foreign land, and one of my favorite practices is to try to hold onto that awareness when I get home, enjoying the sense of being fully present rather than flying down the sidewalk and staring at my phone.

On my most recent trip—a solo adventure to Sayulita, Mexico—I was only there for a month and was determined to make the most of it. This meant surfing two hours at sunrise and two hours at sunset every day. My body made it to the second to the last day before literally giving out. I spent most of the next day and a half in and out of delirious sleep sessions, but I had also never felt physically stronger. Pair that with significantly expanding my command of Spanish and enduring a breakup while away, and I left Mexico with an emotional, mental, and physical strength that I had never experienced before and never would have otherwise.

Was I terrified? Yes. I was so nervous that I wouldn’t be able to handle the waves, that my young relationship wouldn’t survive, and that I’d struggle so much with Spanish that I’d give up. All of those things happened, but with the opposite results. I struggled through Spanish but came out better at it. I suffered through big sets and landed more drops that I ever had before. My relationship ended, and I had the space to realize what a good thing that was. New adventures expose you to depths of bravery within yourself that are hard to discover nestled within the comfortable and predictable confines of daily life at home.

It’s All About How You Look At It

The key is pushing yourself past your comfort zone—and nothing about that requires leaving the country. Even staycation-ing in your home city can inspire you to experience it in a whole new way. Take the attitude you’d have traveling in a foreign country and apply it to wherever you are: book an Airbnb on a different side of town or make a reservation at the local restaurant you’ve been dying to try, even if you have to go solo. You would if you were somewhere else, right? When it becomes clear that you don’t have a legitimate reason not to, you might end up finding a new way to experience your home just by thinking about it differently.

What about that place that’s so close to home that you keep saying you’ll get to one day but haven’t yet? Wake up early and take a day or a weekend to explore. When I lived in Las Vegas briefly, I would often leave at 6 am and spend a day hiking in Zion before heading back around dusk. It was a long day, but it gave me all the satisfactions of adventure without having to pay to stay somewhere or having to drive very far (just two and a half hours each way).

If getting out of the States is what you’ve got your heart set on though, don’t think you have to break the bank to have a spontaneous adventure. Adioso is a clever little tool: it lets you set your destination, length of trip, and budget. When it finds a match, it shoots you an email. Because we all know how airplane ticket prices work, the cheaper flights are often within just a week or two out, but hey, spontaneity is the goal, right?

Whether you start small in your hometown or go on a trip halfway around the world, new and different adventures can be scary. But they can also be exhilarating and life-changing. Even if you push yourself just a little bit, you’ll gradually gain the confidence to try something a little more difficult, than a little more. Before you know it, you might find yourself on a solo surfing trip in a sleepy beach town in Mexico.

Originally written by RootsRated for Craghoppers.

Featured image provided by Basheer Tome