What We Do

Okay, so the title is a little bit stolen from my family blog, but it fits perfectly... I've been thinking a lot lately about the different activities I enjoy doing and how they compare to what I used to like to do or what I might like to try in the future.

When someone asks what things you like to do, how do you respond? When I was growing up I remember loving to play softball with my family and the neighborhood kids. Sometimes we would play on a baseball diamond with sisters, parents, aunts, and uncles taking turns rounding the bases. More often, though, we played in the yard with the tree as home plate, the house as first base, the playhouse as second base, and a random item thrown in the grass near the street as third base. We would fight, some people got hurt, but we loved to play and could be heard throughout the neighborhood late into a summer day.

I loved reading and writing. My family will try to convince you I never read a page or wrote a word, but, instead, used these mediums as a ruse to spy on the hunky neighbor boy. They're partly right. I did love books, though. My most memorable project was alphabetizing and categorizing our 200+paperback book collection. Also, I have notebooks full of imaginary stories (okay, one era of my writing was pretty much also made up of how I imagined being with the aforementioned hunky boy).

Fast forward and it's interesting for me to think about what intrigues and captivates me now. Growing up I was not an athlete and had no inkling of desire to work my body. Music was much more my cup of tea. Now, though, I really do enjoy getting out and riding my bike or hiking or throwing around a Frisbee. Sometimes I surprise myself as I'm trudging up a mountain or sweating with a smile. Don't get me wrong-I complain a lot and talk myself out of getting off my bum a LOT, but once I am out there I thoroughly enjoy myself. Athletics will never be my #1 choice for an afternoon's activity, but I've even become quite enthralled with watching some sports on tv and will always do my best to attend events where a Utah team and an Iowa team are playing together (Go I-Cubs!).

I still love writing and reading. Bliss to me would be having nothing else to do but pour through the library catalog and bury myself in far away lands. I don't typically read a lot of fiction anymore, but can lose myself in a myriad of different subjects. I love learning (and school, by the way) and I love trying to express the way I'm thinking. A lot of times, as I observe the people around me, I realize that I understand topics and events a little bit differently-due to my own personal experiences and background-and writing helps me to share my opinions fearlessly.

Nothing I can think of right now intrigues me more than travelling. I was introduced to the foreign world in high school as my parents attempted to separate me from an abusive boyfriend and growing up in the midwest afforded me a plethora of opportunities for road-tripping. Yet, no one could have expected that the travel bug would bite me so infectiously and I'm not sure that many people understand it even today. I love traveling!! It's exciting to be surrounded by people who live differently, eat differently, and speak differently. It's scary sometimes, but the thrill of figuring it out makes it even better. I love the getting there and I love the being there!

I've done incredible things while traveling that I never would have considered when I was at home. I jumped out of a plane over the geothermal landscape of New Zealand and went blackwater rafting in a Kiwi cave. I ziplined through the Costa Rican rainforest while I was pregnant, ate fish eye curry while I was in Thailand, and sat on an elephant's head while elephant dung splashed all over me. I watched my husband and my son chase pigeons in a Gibraltar courtyard and trekked with them along the most beautiful coastline I've ever seen. These are the things that are intriguing to me. It's those experiences that have made me who I am and sometimes make it hard for me to consider what activities might interest me next.

Ben and I went paragliding for my birthday. Part of me (in addition to the part called "my husband") thinks it'd be amazing to invest in and learn how to do that on my own. I've thought recently it might be fun to actually try mountain biking instead of insisting it's not for me. And, don't tell Ben, but I think I might be ready to again try skiing.

Life is full of opportunities. If I could stand in the same room with teenage me, she wouldn't know what to make of who I've become. I'm proud of my interests and that I've had the courage to try new things. At the same time, I'm glad I've held onto some of my childhood vices. I wish more people would step out of their comfort zones for a brief moment and imagine trying something new. Just let the adrenaline flow, make a decision, and in that moment where doubt begins to creep in, take a huge flying leap! You'll be amazed at where you land.