Do You Want To Have An Adventure?

The topic of adventures has been playing on my mind lately. With my upcoming move to university, it's something that I've been thinking about an awful lot and I'd love to discuss it with you today. I've never been the type of person who craved adventure. I was really quite content to stay at home surrounded by the comforts of things that I've known my whole life. My laptop was there, my books, my TV, my entire family lived in the same city. There was no reason for me to ever want to leave, no desire for me to do anything different, but that's just goes to show that everyone is capable of change, and everyone should change.

Whenever I would see people express their desire to travel and to see the world, I couldn't grasp why they would want to do that. Or how they could do it. Why would they put themselves in a position that could ultimately harm them? Why put themselves so far from home that they wouldn't be able to pop into the local supermarket and pick up their favourite brand of tea? Why would they do this? And then suddenly, I understood.

The want (or need) for me to travel stemmed from my trip to Paris last October to visit my friend Georgia. Of course, you miss home and your home comforts. It would get annoying not being able to enjoy the things that you would usually not think twice about, but there is something so rewarding that you get from trying something new. Not only do you get Life Brownie Points or the chance to impress stuck up people who only think you're worth talking to if you travel to China to pick up tea leaves, but you also get the knowledge, for yourself, that you've done these things. You've seen those famous buildings, you've sat on those steps and watched the sunset, you've shared a train carriage with actual Parisians (who honestly just judge you on what you're wearing - very hard people to impress) and you wouldn't have been able to do that if you never took a chance. From that trip to Paris, all I've wanted to do is to travel and experience new places and new bookshops and restaurants and parks, my god imagine all of the parks I'll be able to see. There is something about travelling that evokes such a magical feeling that Disney would crawl to the ends of the earth for. When I went to Mexico, it was the most nerve wracking thing I've ever done. And that was just the flight. The idea of being that far away from home (and that close to Donald Trump) left me feeling sick to the stomach but honestly it ended up being one of the most amazing things I've ever done. Being able to walk from my room to the restaurant and seeing 6 lizards on the 2 minute journey is something that I could never tire of, and swimming with dolphins is something that I would never have been able to do if I didn't leave Europe. Not to mention the fact that I got the chance to reconnect with so many family members and see my Aunt and Uncle renew their vows, it was just such a wonderful trip from start to finish and I will never turn down an opportunity like that again should one arise. The next place that I'm visiting is actually in a few weeks time and I'm going to Switzerland to stay with aforementioned friend. I know that I'm going to love it there because it just seems like the type of place that I would fall head over heels for. But honestly, the day I make it to New York or Canada is the day that I know I've made it.

But aside from my recently acquired love of travelling, my desire for new experiences and adventures started a lot earlier than October. It actually started when we had to think about where we would go after Year 11. I always just assumed that I would stay on at my secondary school for the next two years until I maybe decided whether I wanted to go to University or not. But when it actually came around to it, I decided that there was no way I would ever grow as a person if I stayed with the same people and the same teachers in the same school all my life, so I left and decided to go to Sixth Form at a different school. I will forever be grateful for Sixth Form because I truly believe that it's where I got the courage to get out and do stuff. Whereas before I would hang around my local park with people I'd known my whole life, Sixth Form encouraged me to go out and meet bands, and go to more gigs, and actually explore the city I'd lived in my whole life. Because I made the leap and left my comfort zone to go to a school where I knew absolutely no one, I was then able to 'expand my horizons' and no matter how much that place drained me, I love it to pieces. It's where I met great friends who then encouraged me to do things that lead me to meeting a lot of other great friends and this post has made me realise that I've changed a lot because of the people I associate myself with, and I love them for it. (Thanks Pals). All of these things, (including going to college after I failed my A Levels and having to study a subject I hated in a college I hated for two whole years of my life) led me to my next and newest adventure, which is moving out of my home and London. Yes, little old me is moving away from home for the first time EVER and making her way to university in Leicester and I am so ready for it. Yes, I'm nervous as hell. I'm worried about making friends and being so far from home and I'm terrified that I'll end up hating it like I hated college, but I know that it's a move I need to make. And it's a move that I've needed to make for a while, in order to get to the next part of this journey we call life.

I don't know whereabouts a lot of you fall on this spectrum. Are you the type of person who constantly needs travel and adventures in order to feel like you're actually doing something, or are you perfectly happy making new adventures and experiences where you feel comfortable and safe? Or are you someone like me who fluctuates between the two?