Get Up Off the Back Wall and Live

Even if you don’t know me personally, it should be clear from reading my other essays here on A Small “x” that I love adventures.

First thing I should seemingly do is explain what I mean by “adventures,” but I’m going to be a bad writer and forego that description. Not out of any contempt for my audience, since I have none! But rather, I feel that describing “adventure” is pointless. If you want to know what I mean, just take one!

Adventures could be anything from big to small. You could go on vacation halfway across the world, or you could just go shopping at 2:30am to get that box of Frosted Flakes you woke up craving.

For me, it’s about busting cycles (which I can’t take credit for coming up with. Click that link above to watch a really meaningful episode of The Show with zefrank) We all have day-to-day lives. Our jobs, our responsibilities, our bills: these are necessary to stay afloat in this world. These make up our ship. If you want to stay afloat, you need something to float on. When you get a car, a job, a phone, a place to live, you’re building a flotation device. If you get nice things that make you happy, you’re building more of a ship and less of a canoe.

But your vessel doesn’t matter much. The ultimate goal in staying afloat is to go somewhere! Some people spend their whole lives building this ship, getting it “perfect,” that they forget the whole point they’re here on this ocean anyways.

They forget to go exploring.

They forget to go on adventures to bust these cycles of our day-to-day lives. Big or small, it’s fun to set sail every once in a while and feel the cool breeze of a life worth living rush over your body.

When I was first getting to know my girlfriend Katie, one of the things I thought was most amazing about her was that she felt the same way I did about all of this.

She was waiting in port with a captain’s hat on and no map: just a blank piece of paper and an interest in cartography.

She wanted to make maps, not follow them. She wanted to go on any adventure she could.

To me, this is the best attitude to have on life. We’re all responsible people when it comes to making sure we stay sea-worthy and stable. We pay our bills on time and show up for work. But that’s not all there is to life.

With so much out there in this world, we can’t spend all our time polishing our boat, however magnificent it may be. Set sail! Get out there and find something. Or, just enjoy a trip.

I know for me, I’d rather be out there at sea on a raft than stuck on the docks, admiring an expensive anchor.

So be spontaneous. Call someone whose company you enjoy and get breakfast with them late at night. Stay up way past when you normally do, even when you have work really early the next day. Get in a car and drive anywhere. Then get out and walk around someplace. This world is what you make of it, kid; so let’s make it worth our while.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back soon. Keep the love alive, everyone.

- Mike