Today, I landed in Munich, Germany. Yesterday, I said goodbye to my friends and family. Two days ago, I sold my car. Two weeks ago, I left my job, sold everything in my apartment, and said goodbye to Dallas, Texas. Two months ago, I gave my supervisor my “notice of intent to self-terminate” (or whatever). And 4 months ago, I began falling in love.
I’ve been told a million times something like “life is full of unexpected adventures,” and I’m pretty sure I’m not exaggerating that. It sounds like a cliché that people vomit up when life starts to feel boring. But, I guess there’s still something about the idea that makes jaded sighs feel like one-time things.
I think I know what that sentence is talking about when people regurgitate it, but I don’t think I agree with its definition of “adventure.” By its definition, a month in Hong Kong, deciding to study Mandarin in college, “cabrewing” the entire length of the town creek (yeah, that’s just drinking beer in a canoe), sleeping under only a blanket in the woods on a fishing trip, and playing with explosives as a kid would be considered adventures, since they’re arguably broad strides away from familiarity. But for me, those activities have intellectual bases only. Let’s see if I can do this. Let’s see what happens when we do that. So, I don’t consider them adventures. Or if I do, then the “unexpected adventures” line is pretty much meaningless. Of course life is full of those kinds of things.
To me, real adventures are sparked and spurred by emotion, where the intellect is just invited along for the ride. During a real adventure, two forces oppose one another at all times: a compulsion to continue, and a compulsion to call it quits. Which compulsion wins and why are the reasons the intellect gets an invitation (analyzing that part would probably teach us something really interesting about ourselves). However, what makes adventure so tempting and so sexy are what happens during the battle between those compulsions–compulsions fueled by emotions like these:
- Hope
- Love
- Fear
- Alienation
- Curiosity
- Desire
- Ambition
- Devotion
- Discomfort
- Impatience
- Sadness
- Disappointment
- Boredom
And each of those can fuel either compulsion.
I’m on an adventure, now–been on it since December 2012–and this stage of it has me landing in Munich thanks to a one-way plane ticket from Texas. The blog you’re reading is about this adventure. Some of it will be about the girl. Some of it will be about the city. Some of it will be about being an American in Europe. Some of it will be about being an American metal fan in Europe. All of it will be about things working either for or against me. Things like:
- I don’t speak German (yet).
- I don’t have a job.
- I don’t have a car.
- I don’t have a phone.
- I do speak English (hope that’s obvious).
- I do speak Spanish.
- I do have mad marketing skills (my professional background).
- I do have love, and not the long-distance kind.
Keep reading, and live this thing vicariously. I’ll be thrilled and nervous, bold and terrified, jubilant and…er…bummed out. You can read and see what that’s like.