Journey vs Adventure

Perhaps at this point you can take a while and ask yourself: has my life been a journey, or an adventure? Because they are different, and the way you look at your life will actually determine the way you live it; the way you make choices in it; the way you carry yourself through.

I have just been reminded that seeing our lives as a journey is not a very good idea after all. Think about this: a 70-80 years of journey? Seriously? A 2 hours-journey in a car of Jakarta-Bandung, seeing only roads after roads or fields after fields is a boring thing already. Or think about a 1.5 hours journey of Jakarta-Singapore flight. Having only rows of seats, few air crews, clouds everywhere outside there; they are not fun at all! When we look at our lives as a journey, we will end up cruising through life. Just enjoy life -that's true, but when your trip is just roads everywhere, or fields everywhere, or clouds everywhere while you are just sitting; you will end up getting sick of the trip, getting sick of the things you are supposed to enjoy.

So think about the other kind of enjoying life. When you look at your life as an adventure; when you have a trip of flat tires, petrol running out so you and your buddies need to take miles of walking the rocky mountain to reach the nearest gas station. And how in the middle of the way you will meet a friendly stranger that is offering you a ride, and in the end you find out that that stranger actually happen to be your childhood friend that has changed so differently from he was before. So then you manage to fill the tank up again, and manage to reach the nearest city to stay for the night. But you can't find any vacant room in all the motels; instead they offer you to pitch a tent in their garden. The next morning you continue your trip, passing through all the fields and mountains again, when you suddenly realize that you are hungry and the food you bring has all been eaten up! So you and your buddies need to find a way to get some food. Now across the field there is this forest fully planted by apple trees. Having no choice, you walk across the field, going up the trees and pick the apples for you guys to eat, and continue the trip.

Ok, enough. Now, all of us would agree that the first trip is far easier than the second one. No hassle, no problems, the trip has been just smooth, everything is in place and as planned. But to be honest, they are boring! No story to tell, nothing to share and impress others. As for the second one, has it been a tough trip? Yes. Is it a challenging one? Yes. Is it hard and tiring? Yes. But I have a story to tell, I had an adventure that you can be jealous of.

So, the question is, have we lived our life as a journey -where we are just cruising through the easiness and comfort in life, or has it been an adventure -where we face challenging experiences? Which one will we go after?

Yes, I don't want to waste my life. I only have one life to live; once in a lifetime when I can become 21; once in a lifetime that I can live on Sunday, June 14, 2009. And I might as well living it all out. When I have a dream, I want to go all out for it! When I am to choose my career, or the path of my life, I would just go for the hardest, I will go for the things I love, no matter how challenging it may be. I will just challenge myself everyday, I will just go for an adventure! I will just do whatever I've never done before.

If you want to fly, you need to be brave to have the ground taken off your feet.
- Caleb Natanielliem