*****This was taken from a speech I gave for SpeechCraft a few weeks ago. I enjoyed writing it so much that it was kind of the spark for this blog to me! Enjoy!*****
The Art of the Misadventure
I can still remember the first time I had a misadventure.
I was 5. My family and I had gone to Colorado for vacation like we did every year back then. My parents had decided that it would be an awesome idea for all of us (my three brothers and I) to hike up a mountain and back.
The only problem was, somewhere along the way we lost the trail. As dusk approached, my parents were desperately trying to figure out what to do. With no cell phones and absolutely no one else around, there wasn't much to do but keep walking. But throughout all of it, I wasn't scared...as a matter of fact, I felt there was absolutely nothing to worry about because I was packin' a ziploc bag full of gummy bears in my purple "My Little Pony" backpack. And I knew this secret weapon could make everything be okay.
That was probably a lie...I’m sure I was terrified. I vaguely remember my three older brothers trying to scare me in regards to the overpopulation of snakes that they said existed in the woods and come out at night. But I’m sure the gummy bears brought some comfort.
Eventually we did make it out of the mountain...but we landed on the wrong side of it and my dad had to hitchhike to the opposite side of the mountain to get the car.
It was the first of many misadventures that would follow.
I had a series of crazy misadventures in my youth, but it was the misadventures that I've gone on with Laura, my best friend from high school, that have provided the most epic stories.
There was the road trip across country with massive sunburns driving in my old volvo with no air conditioning. Then later on that trip getting stuck in a mud puddle on a dirt road miles away from anywhere in Wyoming. And then there was the time that Laura and I went on a trip to Colorado to go whitewater rafting. But before that could happen I wound up in the hospital for almost a week having emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder.
But my favorite misadventure I've ever had with her was when we went sea kayaking in Hawaii just outside of Kailua on Oahu.
Picture this: You're in one of the most beautiful places on earth, on one of the more remote beaches in on Oahu, you'll be kayaking between Kailua beach and Lanikai beach, which run parallel to the two mini islands a mile or so off the coast, called the Mokulua Islands, or The Twin Islands. It's paradise.
Laura and I as we set out for our adventure...so hopeful...so unaware...
Now, sea kayaking sounds awesome in theory, and I had always wanted to try it. But the peaceful, serene atmosphere I had always imagined quickly crumbled before my eyes. We ended up getting a two-person kayak so that if I ended up getting carried out to sea, Laura would come with me. It was a wise decision, because I'm pretty sure I'd be floating somewhere in the middle of the pacific right now if we hadn't.
The first thing I learned was that sea kayaks are hard to get in. We capsized no less than 3 times while trying to set off on our adventure. Once we finally got the hang of it and set off, it was amazing. The views couldn't be beat and the water couldn't be bluer.
After kayaking around for awhile, Laura decides that we are what the rafting guides considered "experts" and that we should kayak out to the Mokulua islands which had been labeled for "EXPERT KAYAKERS ONLY"
I spent a good deal of time trying to talk her out of it, pleading that her 1 prior sea kayak experience, and my current 45 minutes of experience did not make us experts. But, alas, she didn't listen. In retrospect, I probably should have ducked and rolled outta the boat and swam ashore. But I didn't.
As we approached the island giant waves wrapped around it and crashed together in the middle of the beach. There was no good way of landing on the island, and eventually a wave took us down.
Drenched, but alive, we washed ashore. And amazingly so did all of our gear.
But more troublesome than our arrival on the island was the thought of departing as we watched these giant waves crashing together.
Luckily for us, after several attempts to get in the kayak, and a near drowning, a merry band of surfer dudes came to our rescue and helped us get off the island. We then later capsized halfway between the island and the mainland shore. And again were rescued when a kayak tour guide saw us in distress. He managed to pull Laura up on to the raft and then made several attempts to get me on the boat without tipping it over again. I finally flopped onto the back of the kayak and thanked the guy and told him I was just going to lie there on my stomach for awhile while a string of kayakers on the tour passed by and I smiled and waved while they pointed and laughed. "Nothin' to see here folks..."
We made it back to land finally, and in a final act of defiance, the kayak whipped around and tripped me, causing me to fall back into the ocean, once more. I got pretty angry over that part...mostly because it hurt my shin like you would not believe! Turns out, there’s a right way to get out of a kayak...and then there’s a wrong way. Guess which one I took?
But the thing that ties all these stories together is the fact that during all of them, I couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the situations I get myself into. You can choose to get mad about things not going the way you planned, or you can laugh and realize you may not have ended up where you planned, but you ended up going on an adventure you never expected. And if there are surfer dudes there to rescue, it just makes it all that much more awesome!
The Art of the Misadventure
I can still remember the first time I had a misadventure. I was 5. My family and I had gone to Colorado for vacation like we did every year back then. My parents had decided that it would be an awesome idea for all of us (my three brothers and I) to hike up a mountain and back.
The only problem was, somewhere along the way we lost the trail. As dusk approached, my parents were desperately trying to figure out what to do. With no cell phones and absolutely no one else around, there wasn't much to do but keep walking. But throughout all of it, I wasn't scared...as a matter of fact, I felt there was absolutely nothing to worry about because I was packin' a ziploc bag full of gummy bears in my purple "My Little Pony" backpack. And I knew this secret weapon could make everything be okay.
That was probably a lie...I’m sure I was terrified. I vaguely remember my three older brothers trying to scare me in regards to the overpopulation of snakes that they said existed in the woods and come out at night. But I’m sure the gummy bears brought some comfort.
Eventually we did make it out of the mountain...but we landed on the wrong side of it and my dad had to hitchhike to the opposite side of the mountain to get the car.
It was the first of many misadventures that would follow.
I had a series of crazy misadventures in my youth, but it was the misadventures that I've gone on with Laura, my best friend from high school, that have provided the most epic stories.
There was the road trip across country with massive sunburns driving in my old volvo with no air conditioning. Then later on that trip getting stuck in a mud puddle on a dirt road miles away from anywhere in Wyoming. And then there was the time that Laura and I went on a trip to Colorado to go whitewater rafting. But before that could happen I wound up in the hospital for almost a week having emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder.
But my favorite misadventure I've ever had with her was when we went sea kayaking in Hawaii just outside of Kailua on Oahu.
Picture this: You're in one of the most beautiful places on earth, on one of the more remote beaches in on Oahu, you'll be kayaking between Kailua beach and Lanikai beach, which run parallel to the two mini islands a mile or so off the coast, called the Mokulua Islands, or The Twin Islands. It's paradise.
Laura and I as we set out for our adventure...so hopeful...so unaware...
Now, sea kayaking sounds awesome in theory, and I had always wanted to try it. But the peaceful, serene atmosphere I had always imagined quickly crumbled before my eyes. We ended up getting a two-person kayak so that if I ended up getting carried out to sea, Laura would come with me. It was a wise decision, because I'm pretty sure I'd be floating somewhere in the middle of the pacific right now if we hadn't.
The first thing I learned was that sea kayaks are hard to get in. We capsized no less than 3 times while trying to set off on our adventure. Once we finally got the hang of it and set off, it was amazing. The views couldn't be beat and the water couldn't be bluer.
After kayaking around for awhile, Laura decides that we are what the rafting guides considered "experts" and that we should kayak out to the Mokulua islands which had been labeled for "EXPERT KAYAKERS ONLY"
I spent a good deal of time trying to talk her out of it, pleading that her 1 prior sea kayak experience, and my current 45 minutes of experience did not make us experts. But, alas, she didn't listen. In retrospect, I probably should have ducked and rolled outta the boat and swam ashore. But I didn't.
As we approached the island giant waves wrapped around it and crashed together in the middle of the beach. There was no good way of landing on the island, and eventually a wave took us down.
Drenched, but alive, we washed ashore. And amazingly so did all of our gear.
But more troublesome than our arrival on the island was the thought of departing as we watched these giant waves crashing together.
Luckily for us, after several attempts to get in the kayak, and a near drowning, a merry band of surfer dudes came to our rescue and helped us get off the island. We then later capsized halfway between the island and the mainland shore. And again were rescued when a kayak tour guide saw us in distress. He managed to pull Laura up on to the raft and then made several attempts to get me on the boat without tipping it over again. I finally flopped onto the back of the kayak and thanked the guy and told him I was just going to lie there on my stomach for awhile while a string of kayakers on the tour passed by and I smiled and waved while they pointed and laughed. "Nothin' to see here folks..."
We made it back to land finally, and in a final act of defiance, the kayak whipped around and tripped me, causing me to fall back into the ocean, once more. I got pretty angry over that part...mostly because it hurt my shin like you would not believe! Turns out, there’s a right way to get out of a kayak...and then there’s a wrong way. Guess which one I took?
But the thing that ties all these stories together is the fact that during all of them, I couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the situations I get myself into. You can choose to get mad about things not going the way you planned, or you can laugh and realize you may not have ended up where you planned, but you ended up going on an adventure you never expected. And if there are surfer dudes there to rescue, it just makes it all that much more awesome!
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