The Secret to Adventure is Effort and Low Expectations
Some of my favorite follows on social are adventurers like Alex Stroll, James Barkman, Brianna Madia, and Chris Burkhard. Following along in their travels either fills or creates an ache in my soul, depending on the day. It either leaves me nostalgic for all the places I have yet to go or if those I admire are missing the human experience of creating roots and routine. But more often than not, it leaves me struggling with the tension for both sides of the story within my own life. Roots and wings. Newness and familiarity. Longing and contentment.
I am older than some and younger than others in creating a good story. I have never been a full-time van lifer or a digital nomad. Still, my family set an intention years ago to author a life of freedom, creativity, and experiences. We have yet to write the guidebook for raising free-range families. Still, we’ve been at it long enough to see some of our habits manifest themselves in our adult children. Our eldest, a photographer, thriving best with a destination wedding on a mountaintop in places like Norway with her tiny family in tow. Our newly graduated youngest is beginning to chart the territory of meshing her newly minted remote job with her 1987 Vanagon, which is fully ready for any excursion her life may offer.
I could tell you a thousand different things we did, decisions we made, wisdom we have imparted. We made many failures, had many arguments, and learned life lessons on the same path. But in truth, they may all be meaningless to you. Life is a symphony of personality, circumstance, priorities, and opportunity…all working together to create different journeys, none of which look the same. But I can say that we have used a few guiding thoughts as our North Star.
ADVENTURE IS A PRACTICE! It is never easy, convenient, or without work. Easing into the sofa on a Friday night to watch the next season of Peaky Blinders is often more enticing than loading a van and driving four hours to sleep outside with nothing but a pit toilet and maybe a cold shower in your future. The same beach trip you have taken every summer for the past ten years seems much easier than the new destination where you have never traveled because you know the best ice cream shop, and the hotel bellman always remembers your name. The car seats, strollers, bottles, and diapers you must tote on your international flight seem daunting but let me tell you.. if your kid is going to be fussy, it is much more fun in a cottage on the ocean banks of Ireland than in your own dull living room. Adventure is a choice you make over and over. Whether it be to your local swimming hole or to the fjords of Norway. It is always a choice to make that effort. And we have yet to be disappointed.
KEEP YOUR EXPECTATIONS LOW, AND YOU WILL NOT BE AS EASILY DISAPPOINTED. We learned This lesson early on our first tent camping trip with five kids under four whom we naively assumed would fall asleep in the tent, alone in the dark. At the same time, the adults sat by the fire, drinking gin and tonics and telling tales. And if once wasn’t enough, we learned it again on the top of Mt. Mansfield when our much older (ahem) kids screamed at each other, with one refusing to go any further, and once in South Carolina when a hurricane intruded on our trip for FIVE STRAIGHT DAYS. We’ve had to roll with lousy weather, filthy hostels, adult meltdowns (me) on the banks of the Seine, snake bites, broken bones, vomiting children, airport snafus, and 105-degree weather in a silver Airstream (think toaster)… all on our quest for a good story. And was it worth it? Absolutely, unequivocally, YES… every time and in every situation. Adapt and adjust. Adapt and adjust… It has become our mantra that has grown easier with time and experience. But man, the more quickly you learn that lesson, the more fun you will allow yourself to have.
So far, we have found our way through this life, never settling for boring. We’ve taken chances on VWs notorious for not reaching their destination, campgrounds with sketchy reviews, teething kids that might scream for four hours on that flight, and 50/50 weather forecasts. The goal may not have always been what we planned, but it usually makes a great story to be told for years to come...
