“Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you travelled.”

-Mohamed.

I believe we all possess the capacity to be magnificent story tellers, but perhaps those of us who have lived through daring adventures are the most proficient. It is not a measure of practice or skill; rather, it is a measure of life well lived. The more experiences had, the more stories there are to tell. The more bold the experiences, the more thrilling the tale.

So what constitutes a good story? What constitutes an adventure?

I can tell you what does not constitute an adventure: Sitting obediently through life’s prerequisites, never pausing to ask why, never doubting the structure by which we live, and never crying out in anguish over the world’s injustices. Accepting a status quo, believing everything you’re raised hearing, and waiting patiently for society to put you into a box as it inherently tends to do will never, ever, ever make you a storyteller worth listening to. You will never know adventure if you spend your time avoiding harsh realities, choosing ignorance over an upsetting consciousness, and believing you are entitled to your standard of living when others are subject to something so much worse.

Emotion is adventure.

Choosing a blissful unawareness to shelter yourself from the more devastating realities will never take you somewhere unexpected, will never teach you a lesson you might otherwise miss, will never lead you to people who could use your compassionate touch. You mustn’t tiptoe through life, fearful of heartbreak, anger, depression, grief, bitterness, loneliness, helplessness… You mustn’t run from the strength of these feelings. Their pain signifies an experience, an adventure, a coming of age.

Travel is not a guaranteed adventure. Flying overseas does not automatically burst the bubble in which you safeguard what you know to be true. Adventure is a choice, an opening, a forgiving of the world.

Take the darkened back roads that echo with the laughter of strangers and foreign tongues. Ask the old woman where she grew up, why she started making jewelry, why she hugs so freely and who the children in the picture frame are. Ask the young boy why he is afraid of what comes next. Ask. Ask. Never stop asking.

Adventure is a privilege that we are all welcome to. It is where we will discover our greatest tales and our deepest revelations. It is a place of incomprehensible beauty, the most hollow despair, and transformative consciousness.

Imagine the stories you will be able to tell.