The last story in The Meaning of Adventure series, and we’re talking about the joys of being a discoverer and the conclusion to this illuminating topic.
The Joys of Discovery
I never thought deeper into differentiating trips or labeling them according to nature—surf, business, family, or relaxation. My sister would argue that I never thought at all! I wouldn’t blame her. This time, she’s right. I didn’t think beyond my ultimate goal of getting stoked and the need to escape. Everything up to this point, I never bothered to figure the true meaning of adventure. I didn’t bother to until I needed to find out for sure because I myself wasn’t.
I have social media partially to blame for muddling adventure’s definition for me. It came to the point that I’ve mistaken the rugged, raw, and exploratory roots of adventure for glam, luxury, and the constant need of one’s self served.
“I have to do this (insert “local” experience), so they can say that I was here. Oh, please take it in this angle—I look better that way.” said no Instagrammer ever.
Not everybody is like that or have pure self-serving intentions like my judgemental mind thinks. Some do it simply because Instagram is a fun and no-brainer, cloud-based album of their life that they can go back to. I have my own guilt in this area, as well. I bet nobody is really exempted.
The quest for stoke and the search for the “same” experience of stoke caused me to fabricate in the hopes of accurately replicating the same euphoric experience I’ve had before. I’d try to go to the same place, even without the same people (let’s be honest, adults have so much scheduling and planning to go out), try the same process or formula like it’s some magic spell only to end up with unmet expectations and sad feeling in the pit of your stomach because you didn’t get the ‘same’ experience.
“It’s alright. We can always go back.” is the biggest lie ever! We can always go back, but the thought behind this is that we hope to experience what we already experienced.
Nothing will ever be the same. As a surfer, I should have accepted this sooner. No wave is ever the same. The weather will remain as fickle as it decides to be. Friends and lovers come, and we even experience change within ourselves!
There’s this term, a close friend told me about Chuck Palahniuk’s note about jamais vu”… an opposite to deja vu, it’s when you meet the same people or visit the places, again and again, but each time is the first. Everybody is always a stranger. Nothing is ever familiar.”
At one point, this seems almost depressing. I am one of those who long for belongingness and a place to call Home. Yes, Home. A sense of community that may or may not be a familial type of bond. Amid constant change, where does that leave me and the search for true adventure?
Acceptance.
Acceptance of the reality of change, willing resignation to the pursuit of adventure and the fact of God. He’s real, change is constant, and the search of adventure is something we’d gladly to for a lifetime, even if we do it, over and over again.
