There is a single word to classify each one of my memories of life. The word encompasses, with humility, all that drives us for more. All that drives us to ascend our darker moments and surpass our social rank. The dream that, if translated into chemical form would refine to pure adrenaline.
The word is adventure.
When someone mentions a year, a state you’ve been to, or a person you have known for a long time, it is not how much money you were paid that year, the size of the state’s airport, or the person’s eating habits that pop into your mind. The flashes you encounter are of adventures. Of rebellion. Of personal achievement. It is these instances which can be classified as adventures which stay in your mind forever and make up the mental image of who you are. What classifies a memory or event as an “adventure”? The common denominators for my own experience seems to based on the following points:
- The memory must somehow be a first in your life. Perhaps it was the first time you climbed a mountain, or the first time you did so with the person you love. Either way, it is this feeling of new experience which coats the memory with super-glue.
- It must overload your senses. Remember your first time on-stage? Your first date? The first time you went snorkeling? Though the event may have been in a familiar place, during this experience your mental snapshots were being taken from a new point of view. This sort of experience can overload your senses and mute subtle details in order to eggagerate the major ones. This allows the mind to make broad strokes in its efforts to remember the event.
- It must reflect a personal change. What is flashing into your head as you sift through old memories? Is it a walk with a parent in which you communicated something major? Is it a workshop you attended which changed your outlook on the world? In either case, the moments at which we notice the change (not, necessarily, when the change is actually taking place) are the moments which will mark defining and important moments in our lives. These are the memories we will hold on to.
The cruiciet ligament in my knee is torn so badly that it can not support the weight of my Femur (the thigh) correctly above my Tibia (the calf). Consequently, the cartiledge which pads the bones is compressed when I walk. This is EXTREMELY painful. Ultimately, a little flap of hanging cartiledge inside the knee causes it to lock and I am effectively unable to walk at all even while enduring the pain. Until I get knee surgery in a month or so, this is how its going to be. I can’t hike, can’t dance, can only camp in places closely accessible to a bus or car. I can’t swim well, I can’t run, I can’t take walks.
My sense of adventure is limited for now, to my notepad and the books I study every day. My world is reduced to a few miles around my house.
This event and restriction has only strengthened my resolve. The lack of ability to move as I once did is frustrating, and at the same time, inspiring. So deep is my longing to be able to take a walk in the evening as the clouds above darken with the disappearance of the sun’s rays that I know, when I am able to, I will not miss another chance.
So deeply do my feet long to feel the crunch of twigs and leaves underneath them that I know I will take a hike every single day once my body is healed. My request to you: If you are able-bodied (and being “out of shape” does not disqualify you, in fact, it makes this even more vital) you MUST go out and walk in nature. You MUST turn on some music and dance, truly dance, even if its only in your living room. You MUST take swims, and go snorkeling. You MUST climb a mountain, even if that mountain may be someone else’s molehill.
Please, please, please. Use your body now, while you are able and young and fully functional. A debilitating injury can happen at any time, and if or when it does, the memories you have will be your only anesthetic.
Go have an adventure. Make memories that will stay forever. When you find yourself coming up against an option, just once, try the other one. Make a try for new experiences every day.
There is a single statement which has stuck in my mind more than any of Churchill’s or Lincoln’s words, and I don’t even know who said them:
“Do one thing every day that scares you.“
And find your adventure.
