Superpower #7: Adventurousness

This week we traveled to St. Louis to visit Maryville for your college orientation. I kept waiting for some wave of sentimentality or sorrow to sweep over me, and it just never really did. You are jumping into this next chapter with all the cheerful abandon with which you approach every big adventure of your life. Your next superpower is adventurousness, and it is one that will serve you so well in the next (and all) chapters of your life.

I have a quote from a podcast I heard recently hanging on my monitor at work.  It says, “When you’re making a decision, CHOOSE THE BIGGER LIFE” (emphasis/capitals mine). This is advice I need reminding of sometimes, as I know without the nudge I may be tempted to choose comfort, routine, or a few extra hours of sleep over the next adventure. I think most people are like this.  Not you.

When you were little, I wrote this blog about taking you and your siblings to the swimming pool when you were tiny. You were probably 3. This is what I said:

All 4 kids enter the water in ways that completely illustrate their personalities:

Grace carefully tiptoes to the edge, places one foot in front of the other and raises her hands above her head. Then she rocks back and forth from one foot to the other, back and forth, back and forth. She studies the surface of the water, checks to make sure we are watching, checks the water again, then, eventually springs forward in a beautiful swimmer's dive.

Sam walks to the edge, lifts his arms, and dives. He is graceful and quick--utterly effortless and completely self-confident. His cannonball is textbook.

Claire starts as far back as she can (usually the wall) and dashes all out towards a joyful, splashy mouth open, eyes shining leap into the water. She literally pushes other kids out of her way as she sprints forward.  Mama Duck: Like a duck to water

This is how you approach every challenge in your life—eyes shining, joyful, leaping.  And life welcomes you with open arms.

Around this same time, you were invited to your first sleepover. You were very young to spend the night away from home with a school friend. You always make friends effortlessly, and when your little preschool buddy invited you to spend the night you unhesitatingly agreed. As we packed your bag for your night away, I paused and looked into your eager blue eyes. “Are you scared?” I asked quietly.

You tilted your head in confusion. “No?” you said.

“Won’t you miss me?” I asked.

“No?” you said, only slightly uncertain. I realized quickly that I shouldn’t be smearing my doubts and fears all over your confident little girl self, so I quickly buried my own hesitations.
“Good!” I declared. “You are going to have an amazing time!” And you did.

I find myself wanting to have some version of this same conversation with you now. “Are you scared? Will you miss me?” But I know the answer already. Not much.

I would be oversimplifying your depth if I said that I wasn’t sure there were some uncertainties and fears lingering in the quiet places of your heart, but for the most part your fearless love of adventure is dominating your emotions about the next step, and for that I’m glad.

You are a fearless explorer, and the world loves you for it. A few years ago, I found a small decorative sign that I knew I had to buy for you.  It featured a picture of a forest with a little tent pitched near a pond containing a canoe. The caption read, “Thanks for always saying ‘sure, let’s go do that’.”

Adventurousness is one of your dearest superpowers, and it is sweeping you eagerly into the next phase.  College basketball, all new people, a new roommate, university academics, a city where we know no one?  Sure, let’s go do that!