The Adventurous Life

Adventure. It is infectious, ingrained in my blood, addictive. Dangerous, awe-inspiring, heart-stopping, and refreshing all at the same time.

A million words could not describe the feelings that I have for adventure. In the end, adventure is my life. I survive with the basic needs of food, water and shelter, am blessed and my life is made rich by my incredible family and friends, but the challenges and adventures in my life are what really make me tick. It shows in my everyday life. Normally my ride to work in the morning isn't special, but when the winds whip down Apache Drive, I smile and enjoy attacking them with gusto. When I find myself having to do the same analyses day after day in the lab, I grow weary, but if an unexpected challenge or new finding crops up, I am instantly engaged. A weekend spent mulling around town leaves me unfulfilled, but a few days rocking down slickrock singletrack or standing on the top of a mountain refreshes my mind, body and soul. It's just who I am.

So, lots of things have been on my mind lately, and even more things have been on my schedule, so unfortunately my blogging has suffered as a consequence. But, I had to get back to let all of these crazy ideas floating around in my brain out.

Life in the past few weeks/months has been amazing. Since mid-February when I posted last, I have knocked off about 7 of the items on my list of 101 in 1001. I've completed a 24 bike race solo, climbed Weaver's Needle, hiked the Peralta Trail, climbed Baboquiavari (though we didn't summit, so it doesn't fully count yet), snowboarded in Colorado with my family in Winter Park, comfortably answered seminar questions at the MCB colloquium (100% better than last year), and mountain biked all over the slickrock with Jack in Moab. I would write about all of these adventures, but I'm afraid the post would be longer than anyone would want to read. Spending time with my family and friends in some of these amazing places makes my life worth every breath I take. It feels good to be accomplishing my goals, and the adventure of it all keeps me happy.

But, as many of you know... what my soul yearns for is the bigger challenges... the ones that strip life to its core, to its simple pleasures and pains, its pure, real, beautiful roots that are hidden in much of the padding of modern society. So, I have been thinking about the next big adventure. I will be (hopefully... research is fickle) graduating in the next two years. Once I graduate, I will have completed one of the biggest challenges of my life and will add three more letters to the end of my name. It will be the end of my formal education, putting me on the path to the "real world" if I so choose... moving on to bigger salaries, greater responsibilities, and (an unfortunate truth of living in the States) limited vacation days. And eventually, I'm going to find my perfect/intelligent/funny/adventurous man and settle down a bit and have some kids. So, I will need one more big adventure before I move on to those next chapters of my life. Right now, my mind is like a winter meadow - seeded with millions of ideas that are just waiting for the right conditions to germinate and grow into something beautiful. I've still got some time to decide and a ton of factors will go into the decision, but so far, here is the list of potentials in no particular order: Hike the Pacific Crest Trail. Hike or bike the Arizona Trail. Mountain bike the Great Divide Race. Assorted adventures in New Zealand. Climb Mt. Chimborazo. Indian Ocean Rowing Race 2011.

I almost hesitate to put that last one on there... it's a ton of money and I've already rowed an ocean, but gravity pulls me back to the ocean as much as it pulls the ocean up and down the shores. There is just something so pure and infectious about rowing an ocean that it will never leave my blood. Like the memory of a past love, the hard times are quickly forgotten and the joys of the time spent together are some of the best memories of your life, and if a chance to reunite with them comes about, no matter how insignificant that chance might be, it just makes all those memories come flooding back and the desire rises up again. The inaugural Indian Ocean Rowing Race will be starting this Sunday, and for the first time in my life since I learned about ocean rowing races, I will be not be in one of those boats. My muscles will not be propelling that dot on the ocean, instead I will be watching the representative dots move along a computer screen. Not quite as exciting, and although I am exceptionally stoked to watch others make history, I know that I am going to find it hard not to be one of them. It doesn't matter that I am having a blast at what I am doing now, or that I don't have the money, time, etc. to be out there at this point in my life. Some people have no self-restraint when it comes to buying too many shoes or eating too many cookies: I guess it's probably a good thing that my obsessions are a little bit more out of reach than the store or the cookie jar.

Alas, my ideas so far are just that, so don't go worrying just yet. I've got awhile to figure things out, and more will probably begin to populate that meadow in my mind before the spring of 2011. So until then, here's to the next batch of future ocean rowers, and to all of the adventurers out there!