We're On An Adventure!!

When Elan the Bard and his follow adventurers were arrested by Miko the Paladin and were to be taken to Azure City to answer the charge of "weakening the fabric of the universe" (of which they were guilty, by the way), he tried to convince Haley the Rogue to go along with it (rather than disappearing into the night) because, and I quote "It'll be an adventure!" Haley responded by saying, "Elan, we're adventurers. Technically, anything we EVER DO officially counts as an 'adventure.'" Elan ponders this for a moment and is later seen half-covered in grape jam, doing a handstand with a lantern hanging from one foot and a squirrel sitting on the other, playing paddleball with his free hand while a roller skate dangles in front of his face, hanging from a stick tied to the top of his head, excitedly declaring, "I'm on an adventure!!"

While Elan's wisdom and intelligence are questionable, I love his optimism. No matter what happens in our lives, whether good or bed, it'll certainly be an adventure. I had such an adventure the other night, when I spent two hours searching for a camp site that I must have biked right passed at least twice. At first, I was excited about the adventure I was on, hauling a cart full of camping gear to a site I was sure I'd find easily. When the campsite proved more difficult to find than I had anticipated, my excitement lessened, but I still must admit that it was an experience, an adventure, that I am glad to have had.

I had some desire to apply such optimism and enthusiasm to my experiences of yesterday. Not much happened - just a bunch of meetings and assignments - and I was feeling pretty down when I thought about how much I was expected to do and how little energy I had left after my previous adventure. I just basically wasn't having any fun. But I knew that was my choice. I could still make it sort of fun. Rather than seeing my assignments as work, I could choose to see them as a challenge. Rather than seeing them as responsibilities, I could see them as opportunities. Rather than seeing life as a lot of work, which I admit that it is, I could see it as an adventure, which it also is.

God gave us this life so we could have experiences. With all the ups and downs in life, some of the experiences are positive and exciting, while some of them are negative and discouraging. But when this life is over, we're going to look back at it with the same perspective that a hiker has when he reaches the top of a mountain and looks back at the trail he just climbed. Some stretches of the trail were rough, and some of them were easier. Sometimes, you had a great view, and sometimes, all you could see is the steep climb ahead of you. In some moments, the adventure was exciting. In other moments, climbing the mountain seemed like more trouble than it was worth. But in the end, it's an experience, and you can choose whether to see it in a positive light or a negative one.

And if you need a little help seeing negative experiences in a positive light, consider this: before this weekend, I didn't think I could bike for five hours straight (taking 5-10 minute breaks every now and again, drinking plenty of water and eating trail mix to keep my energy up) while hauling a heavy load up and down hills and back and forth across bridges, but I did it. Either I had that power already within me, or I gained that power through the experience, but either way, by the end of the day, I had shown to have more power than I had thought I had the day before. I don't know whether the experience brought out some hidden strength that I already had, or whether it gave me more strength than I had had before. Probably both. But now I have that strength, and I know that I have it, and if we can apply that to the other challenges of life, who knows what kind of potential we can unlock?

The great thing about adventurers in some stories and most role-playing games is that they grow stronger and more skilled through the challenges they face, and the same is true for us. As we face difficult challenges, we gain or unlock power, skills, and abilities that we didn't have before, or at least didn't know we had. The harder our challenges are, the more we grow. In that sense, the tougher our obstacles are, the better they'll be for us in the long run. I still feel kind of tired from biking so far and sleeping on the ground that weekend, but my arms and legs have never felt stronger. While a certain stretch of that adventure was more of a challenge than I'd have liked it to have been, it was still a good experience, and I'm glad I had it.

There will probably be a few more "adventures" in my future - some more challenging than others - but I'm going to try to face them with a positive perspective and focus on how much they're helping me grow, and what great stories (and blog posts) they'll be when I get through them. So the next time a challenge hits me, I'm going to remind myself that "I'm on an adventure!!" and I'll try to make it a good one. We're all on an adventure of sorts, and it is, quite literally, the adventure of a lifetime. And that's worth getting excited about.