Living an Adenture

Adventurous.  Adjective.  Definition: Inclined to undertake new and daring enterprises.

I do not want to get to the end of my life and think "I wish I would have done it differently."  I don't want to be old and bitter.  I want to live now.  I want to acknowledge that life is short and that embracing every moment of it is critical.  I hope to grow old and have a house and children.  But what if I don't?  What if I contract a fatal disease tomorrow and am told I have 3 weeks to live?  What would I do?  And why am I not doing it now?

Living without regret isn't living recklessly.  It's living.  Plain and simple.  It's making the best of your life.  It's making the life you've been given, what it was created to be...beautiful.

I know I've talked about this before: my "mom" relentlessly follows her dreams.  She's adventurous and courageous and she's set an awesome example for me.  Even before we were mother-daughter, she taught me to dream as big as I want.  She taught me that dreams can become reality.  And she never let a no stop her - she only let it push her further.

My wife is a good example of this as well.  She was the ideal student.  Everything she accomplished in her undergraduate program was geared towards moving on to graduate school.  However, when the time came to apply, nearly every person she spoke with and every school she applied to told her that she would need a year worth of "professional experience" before she could be admitted into their program.  She didn't care what they said.  We spent hours together researching programs and their admission criteria.  We were prepared to move cross-country if we had to.  And we were prepared to not give up...no matter what.  When that acceptance letter finally came, it was a BIG achievement.

I'm proud of the examples that have been set for me.  My mom and my wife are happy with the decisions that they've made.  Even when things didn't turn out as they'd expected, or when something wasn't as it had seemed, they both have held their heads high knowing that they don't have to spend the rest of their lives wondering if they had missed an opportunity.

I don't know what my dreams are yet.  I don't have my life planned out.  I know that I want children and a home.  I know that I want to see the world.  But I don't know where I'll be in 5 years.  Hell, I don't know where I'll be next year!  I do know, whatever I decide, I have some pretty supportive people standing behind me.  They've always believe in my abilities and let me follow my own path.  I'm sure if my mom were planning my life for me, I wouldn't have been in beauty school.  She would have put me in Loyola or Brown...but when I approached her with the idea of Aveda, I had her full support.  She asked me if it was what I wanted and if it would make me happy.  That's all that mattered to her.  Really, that's all that should matter to anyone!

As January approaches, I know that I will be enrolling in school again.  I don't know what classes I'm going to take.  I don't know if I'll obtain my associates degree and stop there or move on and go further.  I don't know if I'll ever use my degree or continue on my current path.  I do know that education is important to me.  I have an innate desire to learn and I'm good at school.  It feels good to embark on something that you know you're good at.  I know that learning makes me happy.  And by the standards of those who matter, that's all that's important in this world.