The Spirit Of Adventure

Off we go! Hello everyone and welcome to the new segment of This Guy Over Here. Today’s topic is the spirit of adventure and what that entails. Before we begin with that, just wanted to talk about how things have been going in the past week. Yesterday, the temperature peaked at 70 degrees, making it one of the warmest November 9ths in the past 15 years. It was like we had gone through our mini-winter and the new spring was here. However, the worst is still to come. We all know it, so lets soak up these last few rays of sunshine while we can.

On Monday, I had the opportunity to eat lunch with two Old Masters. The Old Masters program is a student-based organization on campus. Every year they bring back 10 individuals who received their master’s degree from Purdue University. These ten people have all made a relatively large impact on their industry, environment, or peers. The two individuals that I got to eat lunch with were Linda Huff, and Bob Peterson. Both were fabulous people; however, I really got into talking with Mr. Peterson, and it was actually through our discussion that the idea for this blog topic came up. If any of you have seen the movie Up, Finding Nemo, or Monsters Inc, then you offhandedly know who Bob Peterson is. He was a voice in all three of those movies, including Doug the Dog in Up. He was co-director of the movie Up, and was a Screenwriter for Finding Nemo. As we talked about his career, and some of his movies, we really got into the question, “What constitutes an adventure?” And so, in response, let’s go on our own adventure!

To infinity and beyond!

So we are going to start by defining adventure. What is an adventure? How does one go on an adventure? Why do we go on adventures? These are all questions that I hope to answer. According to dictionary.com, adventure means participating in exciting undertakings or enterprises. Merriam and Webster define it as the encountering of risks. Personally, I think it is a little hard to put words to something as flexible. Merriam and Websters definition actually leads me to my first point, which is: Do we have to be encountering risks to experience an adventure?

Hollywood has done such a good job of tying together adventure and risk that the two seem almost inseparable today. We are raised in this lifestyle that tells us in order to have adventure, or in order to have fun, we have to take risks. Now backtrack here a bit. Taking risks is a sketchy topic, because we want to encourage the youth of today to take risks and try and fail to grow and mature. However, there are some risks that shouldn't be taken, some that actually lead to peril and harm, and some that aren't really risks at all but stupid behaviors. Does adventure come with risk? Sometimes. Does it have to? Not at all.

The second misconception about adventures is that you have to go somewhere to have an adventure. This is completely not true. The reason why people tend to find that they are more adventurous as they travel is because they have a limited amount of time in that set location, and everyone wants to make the most of the time in a new place. Sometimes we get caught up in living life that we forget that we can still find and experience adventures in our own backyards, neighborhoods, or dorms. The adventure shouldn't be defined by the place but by the person.

The third misconception that people have about adventures is that you personally have to do something that is outrageous and or so irrationally different in order to truly have an adventure. What we need to realize is that sometimes, the greatest adventures comes when we don't do anything. The world moves at such a fast pace. Granted, it moves faster in some places than in others; yet, sometimes we get so caught up in the rotation that we fail to simply stop and take in the wonderful things that are happening all around us. Another way to experience a great adventure is to just listen. So many people have so many absolutely wonderful things to say and share; we just never take the time to get to know them and to listen. I always like to say that you learn twice as much everyday as we do now if we actually listened.

We've grown up in an age where when most of us think of the word adventure, we instantly begin to think about fictional movie characters such as Indiana Jones. Seeing as many of us aren't going to be going through the Temple of Doom, how do we manage to get adventure into our everyday lives? See that's just it though.

Our everyday lives are our adventures. I believe that everyday is an adventure in and of itself. We aren't guaranteed that we will be here tomorrow. We aren't even guaranteed that we will be here in the next hour. So why not make each and every day an adventure in and of itself? This doesn't mean go out and do stupid activities, and then blame this guy because I said that you should live as if life could end at any time. Obviously there is a strong line between living vicariously and living irrationally. If we focus on making each and everyday a new adventure, we will get the most out of life, and we will be happy.

For all of you gamers out there, I just got Call of Duty Black Ops today. So far, it is legit. Too legit to quit. I got to go out to eat with my mom today which was a nice way to spend a Wednesday afternoon. If you haven't yet today, tell your parents that you love them. That's basically all I got. Have a great week, and thanks for reading the thoughts of This Guy Over Here. Feel free to leave a comment or write me on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/bobbalockinosmagockin

Have a wonderful week!

Closing tip for the week: As many of you have probably heard/ seen, there is a dining court in the basement of the northern most part of Cary Quad. This is only for the student athletes, and many of you may be disappointed because you realize that you will never have the opportunity to dine as the athletes do. Think again my friend. If you sign up through the Dining Court system to do reviews on the dining courts and their service, you are guaranteed at least one meal in this super exclusive restaurant. It's obviously well worth the trade off of a couple of pages of reviewing the dining courts.

Closing quote for the week: 'Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore." ~Andre Gide

Throwing up the NW333 and speed racing with the Easy Rider.

Signing off,

JD