This I Believe

I believe that adventure is where you find it. When I was a boy, I dreamed of the adventures I would have when I grew up. I wanted to be a cop, and made up stories of fighting crime and saving people’s lives, and making a difference in the world. When I was in high school and college, I wanted to become a newspaper reporter, and imagined myself sending in stories from some conflict in Central America or the Middle East, telling the truth about what was happening in parts of the world where the truth is not always clear. At other times in my life, I have simply thought of just hitting the road, moving from place to place and taking each new day and each new place as an adventure; and then writing about it.

My life did not turn out as I had imagined it. Instead of living a life of adventure, my life is very ordinary, I work at an office job, have an hour commute each way, I own an elderly house that demands a lot of attention, I pay most of my bills on time, go to church, etc, all very mundane; but that is okay, most people do not lead lives of adventure, if they did, nothing would ever get done.

My life is good, but sometimes I feel a sorry for myself for having traded a life of excitement, for a life of quiet responsibility, holding down a job and raising my daughter….but, if I think about it, I realize that this is the adventure! What can be more challenging, more exciting than being a single father? In my childhood dreams of adventure, I never imagined myself as a single parent, and I had no way of knowing how much of an adventure it would be!

I found adventure in having to afford food, rent and childcare, while still a student myself, in changing diapers, and in waking up to calm nightmares and to chase loose hamsters or to catch a mosquito that was loose in her room. There was adventure in trips to the doctor’s on New Years Day, and in real life vacation trips to the Badlands, and imaginary expeditions to hunt for bears or aliens. I also found adventure in going over Fourth grade homework assignments that stumped and confused me, and adventure in learning about the complicated social lives of pre-teen girls!

The adventure of being a single parent, has been amazing, overwhelming, frustrating, and incredibly difficult; yet I can see no better way to have spent my these years of my life, because this experience has formed a strong bond between my daughter and I, that may not have been created if life had taken a different turn. I am glad that I have had the opportunity to be a single father, and would not trade this experience for any of my boyhood dreams of adventure; the adventure that I am on is far more rewarding!