Wandering

I love routine. Having a plan and knowing exactly what I'm going to be doing makes me less prone to decision fatigue. I plan my meals, plan my exercise (except when I need to be flexible), and go to sleep at roughly the same time every night.

So routine is great...

...Except I also hate routine.

There's something about spontaneity - doing something new, exciting, dangerous even. I crave it.

I think about my life up until my very recent working years. There was always something that broke up my routine. Summer vacation as a child brought two months worth of camp, bike rides with friends, and flights to Florida to hang out with my grandparents. In college, I'd look forward to summer jobs, free laundry at  home, and reconnecting with high school friends. My first career after college was at a university in California - so even though I worked through summers, it was far from the routine of the school year.

When I left higher education - and CA - I had a full month to make my way across the country to Connecticut. This was one of my most memorable adventures with my husband before we were married. We'd wake up with no real agenda, drive off to wherever felt right - Napa, Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore - and set up camp for the night whenever we got tired of driving. We ate a lot of hot dogs over the fire that month.

Just three years later, we were presented with the opportunity to take a four-month sabbatical of sorts to work aboard a cruise ship for a program called Semester at Sea - a floating university that circumnavigated the globe and took us to ten countries.

From Vietnam

These extended periods of spontaneity have been harder to come by since I did Semester at Sea in 2009, though. Maybe it's one of the reasons I job-hopped a bit since then, although I think that was more largely due to anxiety.

I moved to New Jersey from Connecticut, and then to Florida, and each move brought the promise of something new, fun, and exciting. I can't say I'm not having fun living in paradise. But even that has brought with it a certain routine... and the feeling of a need for extended escape.

I think this recent article from Mark's Daily Apple sums up the way I've been feeling over the last few years. He's got a decent list of ways to bring more adventure into daily life.

Me? I'm giving it a shot with a quick escape to Colorado this weekend. I've never been, so looking forward to shaking things up. I've only got 5 days - not the month long sabbatical I've been craving, but certainly every little bit of adventure helps.

There may not be blog posts over this time, but likely plenty of documentation through SnapChat since there may be photos I don't want to live on forever...

How do you bring adventure into your daily life?