The Adventures of Tap

I often wonder just what the word adventure means to people. For some it means an exciting  trip to some far-off country. For others its leaving everything behind to go off into the bush for a week or more. The dictionary definition of it suggests that and adventure must be exciting, or involve at least some element of risk. I myself believe that an adventure can be had anywhere, at any time, by any person, and you don’t need to risk one hair on your head. I do it all the time.

I can sit for an hour on some grassy knoll, looking out over some large, deep blue expanse of water and have an adventure. I don’t have to even move. In fact, I don’t even have to be sitting on that grassy knoll (but it would be nice). I could be sitting in my room, on my chair,  staring at the wall. How could I still have an adventure if I’m not even moving, let alone being some place as boring as my room? You can have an adventure in your head. Just use your imagination. Stop listening, stop seeing, and just think. Get your own head and forget where you are for a moment. Then start your adventure.

Drop yourself into a situation, any situation at all. We all have our adventuring fantasies, so why not start with that? I like to imagine myself sometimes in New Zealand. Its a beautiful country with a nice temperate climate and lots and lots of green. I drop myself in some valley, with my pack of gear and some food, and I just begin to walk. It doesn’t matter where I go, because I want to get lost. I don’t want some set course. There isn’t enough excitement for that. If I’m going to only imagine my adventure, why not add some risk? I imagine myself trekking for days on end, camping by crystal lakes, standing on the top of mountains, and laying in meadows at night, staring up at the sky. And that sky alone is exciting because it is one I have never seen before because I am on the other end of the earth. Each morning I wake up to the smell of fresh, warm, clean, air. I befriend a kiwi. How, I don’t know, but I have one travelling with me, and he is really cool in his flightless-bird kind of way. Eventually there comes I day when I’ve had my fill of adventuring, and I snap out of it.

I’m still in my room. On my computer screen there is still that incomplete C program that is due tommorow. Nothing has changed except that I’m a little hungrier, and a lot happier.

Trackback URL