New Adventures

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.   Gilbert K. Chesterton

At the beginning of the year, I was talking with a friend about resolutions and my dislike for the temporary promises that people make to themselves and only tend to follow for about a week.  During this conversation, my friend disclosed that he had made a resolution – to have more adventures this year.  It didn’t matter if the adventures were big (like traveling out of the country) or smaller in scope (running a 5K), the goal was to try new things have to have fun!

Reflecting on the past 5 months and especially the past few weeks, I think I too am following this goal during 2012.  Granted traveling to Argentina and Brazil were big adventures… especially the Brazil part of the travels…  But I am realizing that I have had a number of other adventures recently – signing up for Ragnar, running the survive the farm race, joining a pick-up game of Ultimate, making new friends.  Many of these things are pushing me outside my normal comfort zone but it’s all been good! 

So, here’s to the adventure of everyday life – I’ve enjoyed the adventures so far, and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead!

Any road.

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.    Lewis Carroll

I stumbled upon this quote a few weeks back, it has made me stop and I have been thinking about it ever since.  It’s a very simple statement and has a lot of truth to it.  Apparently the roots of the quote are often tied back to Alice in Wonderland, but the quote cannot actually be found in the original text of the novel.

I struggle with this quote because some of my best experiences in life have come from the roads that I traveled on unintentionally, however I do believe it is important to have some markers along the path and plans set out to make sure one does not lose their way while taking a detour.

However, I have a hunch that this particular quote made me stop due to the fact that I am coming near to the end of another milestone in my life, grad school is going to come to a close in the next 6 months, and I am entering into a state of wondering what to do next… luckily there are options to choose from, the hard part is picking one to pursue!

Keep Calm and Carry On

So this poster and many parodies of it are flying around the internet right now, and seem to be all the rage.  While I must admit that I find some of the parodies cute, humorous and sometimes applicable to my life (i.e. I saw one that said “keep calm and just graduate”), I have been thinking that this saying was just being overplayed and sadly watered down.  However, I stumbled upon the video below that explains the origin of this poster and the saying, and found it to be quite a good story so I thought I would share!

The video is interesting simply from the historic aspects but it narrator also wonders why the saying is resonating with so many people at this juncture in time.  I have a feeling that this saying resonates with people now just as many people tend to look back on the “good old days” – the times before we were tethered to the internet and our email 24/7, the times when life seemed simpler.  The world keeps moving faster every day, and I think as the world moves faster we need to remind ourselves to reflect and realize that not everything is a crisis, and that some things can wait.  The world will carry on, and at the end of the day it is up to you how you react.  You have the choice to either stay calm and work though the daily obstacles thrown into your path, or you can panic and be washed under the overwhelming title-wave that the world can (and likely will) bring your way on any given day.

What’s more important, the frame or the content?

On one of my flights for work today, I was reading a magazine that I wouldn’t normally bother to purchase or read, but I was feeling the need for a little mindless reading to distract me from the reality of my life… so if I usually avoid this type of reading, why am I admitting to reading it and why am I telling you this?  Well, I was surprised to find an article (or rather the letter from the editor) that grabbed my attention and actually caused me to pause and think.  It was a challenge to women and their relationships with their mates, and how they would be happier if they focused more on the “content” than on the “frame” of the men they date. 

I could have easily overlooked this statement or even written it off, but with my recent experiences, this happened to catch my attention and made me pause to reflect a moment.  This is a simple yet profound concept which I believe that more and more people are missing in life.  As our society continues to become ever more connected and available 24/7/365, and as more people continue to long for more “things” as they search for happiness, I think that it’s true. A lot of people are focused on the frame, they are focused on how things “are supposed to be” rather than embracing what is right in front of them.

Growing up on a farm, I had a very large family that provided me with a lot of love and support throughout the years.  I think that my upbringing helped me to understand the value of relationships and taught me how to respect for those relationships.  It also taught me that you don’t necessarily need to have the newest trends or latest gadgets to truly be happy.  Life should not be about labels or the way things look on the outside, it should be about the content.  I strive to fill my life with people that know the value of relationships and respect that value.  I believe that is the key to happiness in life – finding good people, who treat others with respect, and know the value of their relationships.

After thinking on this a bit, I was happy to conclude that while I do become distracted by a shiny frame every once in a while (I mean, who doesn’t?), at the end of the day I generally focus on the content.  I only wish that more people would focus on the content, and how their actions and words can truly impact others.  If more people in this world spread love and respect, and cherished the relationships they have in their lives, the world would be a happier place.

2012 – A Year for Action.

As we roll into 2012, I am actually taking a minute to reflect on the year behind me and the year that lies ahead.  Usually I am very anti- New Years Resolution type of girl, because I think it is ridiculous that individuals wait until a calendar tells them to make a change in their lives.  I think you should just take the initiative to embrace the good in life and change what you don’t like regardless of the time of year.  However after the events of this past year, I feel like I need to refocus my life and start anew… even if it’s just an arbitrary calendar date telling me to do so.

During my reflections over the past few days, weeks and months, there is one theme that keeps popping up.  I find myself wanting to do something but telling myself I have to wait because the timing is not right.  The repeated statements of “someday I’d like to do X…” or “when I finish Y then I’ll be able to do Z…” are starting to feel a bit old and tired.  I’m realizing that it feels like I am always waiting on some activity to be completed or something to fall into place.

With the turn of this new year, I’ve decided that I’m sick of waiting.  I’m sick of playing defense.  I need to go back on offense.  I’ve been playing defense ever since I started grad school last fall, just trying to survive my day to day life.  I still have 11 months of grad school left, and it’s going to be a trying 11 months, but in the words of the late Collin Haight, “Take whatever you do, and go at it like a mad freaking bull.”