Sense of Adventure

Ever since I was little I've had a strong sense of adventure.  There are a couple of things I remember wanting to do as a career, such as:

• Storm Chaser/Meteorologist
• First person to walk on Mars
• Oceanographer/Marine Biologist
• Employee of the Australian Zoo (Steve Irwin was my hero, RIP)
• Archeologist

I can remember making lists of all the careers I'd wanted to have, the most I remember was 18, I had them in order of what I wanted to do first, also! 

Now, of course, my goals are a bit different, but I seem to have kept, or rediscovered, the adventurous spirit I've had through most of my life.  It drives me to achieve new goals everyday.  It's the reason I work at a high ropes course, and a climbing gym, the reason I wouldn't settle for just whatever job I could find.  The reason I'm not going to college, and instead I'm working to save money to hike the AT.  The reason I'm writing this blog in the first place.

I went to an Oceanography summer camp a few summers ago, because when I was 15 or 16 I had decided to become a Marine Biologist, my favorite animals were sharks, and I had to pick a career at some point, so why not just work with sharks?  It was thanks to this camp that I rediscovered how much adventure meant to me.

I earned four college credits for the camp, I enjoyed the course work, and it seemed like I would be content following that line of work for the rest of my life.  Then, we went snorkeling, and hiking, and dock jumping (which I'd never done, and didn't really end well, but I'm glad I did it), and after those two short weeks everything had started to click.  Within a year I'd started making my list, and shortly after that this blog was born.

Hard work went into that camp, I saved over $600 for it in under six months by teaching dance and babysitting, and I wrote an essay about why I wanted to be a Marine Biologist for a $500 scholarship.  "Just imagining  all the weird, creepy, beautiful, or just amazing creatures that may be lurking in the depths of unexplored caves, or sea floors, or reefs fill me with a kind of excitement that is easily compared to 'a kid in a candy store'" - A quote from my original, unedited essay.

A lot of my friends have a strong sense of adventure also, and I guess that was the inspiration for this post.  Many people lose their sense of adventure or passion for a certain subject because of things like job security, or just general wage differences.  I know people who are going into certain fields just because they'll make a lot of money, and not necessarily because they enjoy that work.  I also know people who will talk passionately about the field they are entering that will not earn them much money, just because it's what they enjoy doing.  The latter are my favorite kind of people.

I hope you all still have an adventurous spirit, even if your adventures aren't things like climbing the tallest mountains in the world, even if they just involve writing fantasy novels, or driving school buses for a living.