As an adult, I do a lot of things that I’ve done many times before. Get out of bed, get dressed, go to work –> I’ve done that trifecta many times. Break up the fight between the kids, discuss sibling appreciation, force XYZ kid to apologize to ABC kid –> I’ve done that trifecta many times, as well. As a matter of fact, I think we end up in ruts of behavior, where we are doing things, day in and day out, that we’ve done countless times previously, without many opportunities for ‘adventuring’.

When I think of adventuring, I think that it is sometimes planned out, and other times, I think it is a spontaneous set of decisions to just exercise some freedom. This past weekend, Jennie and I took an opportunity to spend some time together, just the two of us, galivanting around Van Buren county, enjoying each other’s company. It wasn’t really planned out, and we had a great time being together, looking for adventure.

And while I suspect that it’s the case that some people are better at staying committed to adventuring than others, I know –speaking for myself– that I often fall out of the practice of being adventurous, more often than not, just because I fall into the old habits of ‘going through the motions’ and doing the ol’ ‘second verse, same as the first’ routine.

What’s even less common for me is adventuring alone; the other day, as I was starting to form the idea for this blog post in my head, I tried to remember the last time that I went on an adventure alone. It took me a few moments, but then I remembered it.

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I know that I’ve mentioned this before, but in case you didn’t know, I’m a bit of a Stephen King fan. While it would be much too much to say that I’ve read every word he’s ever written down, it would not be too much to say that I am closer to having accomplished that task than most people. I’ve been reading Stephen King books for as long as I’ve been reading, give or take a few years there, in the very beginning, when my mom and dad would have been forcing me to read stuff that was less entertaining. As soon as I was able to buy my own books –we usually went to the Majerek’s bookshop in Niles pretty often when I was a kid– I would slip a Stephen King book up to the cash register counter when no one was looking and pay for it before anyone has the chance to notice.

Somewhere in the second quarter of 2017, at approximately the same time that Stephen King announced the release of his upcoming novel, I purchased tickets to an event in Naperville, Illinois, at North Central College. The event, hosted by Anderson’s Bookshops, promised to be a once-in-a-lifetime event, for you see, Stephen King is not often seen in public at events associated with his writings. But, Anderson’s Bookshops were set to bring Stephen and Owen –his son– to North Central College to speak about the book that they’d co-written, Sleeping Beauties.

I learned about the event from my official membership newsletter from the Stephen King fan club, and I got permission from Jennie to buy myself a ticket. I convinced her with the whole “the ticket doesn’t cost that much more than the book would cost, and the event includes a copy of the book, which I was going to buy anyway, so I’m really not spending that much more at all” routine –> I’m sure you’ve used the same trick before, am I right?!?!

And then, like it always goes when I pre-order a Stephen King book months before it is set to come out, there was nothing to do but wait. But, this waiting was a little bit more agonizing, because not only was I going to be getting the next Stephen King book, I was going to be seeing Stephen King in person on September 29th.

I remember, on that Friday evening, leaving directly from work to head to the Chicagoland area. I was concerned about travel time, and the one-hour time difference between the two locales. I took the drive in, and ended up eating alone in a restaurant just a few blocks from the North Central College campus, so that I wouldn’t end up being too far away. It was fun, finding a place to park my car for a few hours, walking around and adventuring.

All of this leading up to the main event.

I remember thinking that the event was going to be great –and it was, in a sense– but I also remember the experience going differently than I’d expected it to go. But, getting to see one of my heroes in person was a great adventure that I’ll not likely ever forget.

We listened to Stephen and Owen talk about the book, and it was interesting to listen to them talk about what it was like for them to work together on the project.

After it was all over, I picked up the copy of the new novel that was promised to me, as I was leaving the venue for the evening, and then I walked back to my car and headed back home. It was pretty late when I finally did get home, but I checked an item off of my bucket list that evening.

* * *

Part of the fun of adventuring, whether it’s planned out months in advance or it’s a spontaneous afternoon of meandering around, is that we are reminded that life doesn’t have to be as rigid as we become accustomed to thinking of it. While we spend most of our time ‘in the daily grind’, we can –and should– break out from the established patterns of behavior, if for no other reason than to be reminded that we have more freedom than we often think we do.

And who doesn’t love some freedom every once in a while?!?!