Choose Your Own Adventure

Adventure is typically defined as “an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks.” However, for some, their last “adventure” might have been a trip to the grocery store where they ran into an ex they were avoiding. Even a daily visit to the gym, when interrupted by a flat tire, can become an adventure. These experiences bring into question the definition of adventure and what is required to change an ordeal or even an ordinary event into a journey. 

In the most recent episode of Tripod, “Out There: Adventures over Ordeals,” Lance Garland discussed his memoir, Out There: Dispatches from My Personal Wilderness, forthcoming from Trinity University Press in October, and the many personal, physical, and emotional journeys he has faced. Over the course of the recording, he considered how much of his life could easily be viewed as an ordeal rather than an adventure. 

Garland joined the Navy during the era of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, which allowed LGBTQ+ individuals to serve in the U.S. military as long as they did not disclose their sexual orientation, and later became the first openly gay fireman in Seattle. Although these experiences presented significant challenges and obstacles, his perseverance and open mind helped him emerge from them as a proud advocate for his community. 

After Garland shared this, I recounted the absolute privilege I had to attend Kelly Grey Carlisle’s creative nonfiction class at Trinity University. We often discussed our personal definitions of adventure and whether grieving and emotional trials should be considered as such. I said that my takeaway was that deeming something an adventure is a matter of perspective. 

Much like the sentiment “art is art when I say it is,” an opinion that Marcel Duchamp and other artists introduced, I think adventure is an adventure when we say it is. Remember, a trip to the grocery store might be an adventure. Yet for seasoned outdoorsmen like Lance Garland, summiting peaks and putting out fires might be more likely to meet the requirements for adventure. 

Perspective is a powerful tool. Our reality is what we make of it. Although many outdoor enthusiasts and adrenaline junkies set a high standard for adventure, these activities are not available to everyone. And while many groups are working hard to make outdoor opportunities more accessible, which Garland and other outdoor enthusiasts support, there are often not enough hours in the day to have an adventure. 

But it is always possible to make the choice to see each day as an adventure, to face our challenges not as ordeals but as opportunities to begin a journey.

By Lily Brennan