No Guts, No...Fun?

I got invited to a friend's cousin's wedding. This was a relatively new friend, I had never met his parents let alone extended family, and it was over a long weekend at Yosemite. At first I took pause, but then threw that out the window and thought, “why the hell not?” Especially since Yosemite is probably my favorite place ever and I desperately needed to get away.

I immediately put the trip in my calendar and went on with my business, looking forward to getting to go on a short little trip. On the drive there, my friend said that he thought I had a lot of guts and I wasn't sure what he meant or was referring to. It didn't even dawn on me that he thought I was brave for even going on the trip to begin with. I laughed and shrugged it off, not thinking anything of it. Later, when I met his mom, she said the exact same thing and praised these guts of mine. That got me thinking...

I don't come from a place of not trying new things (I'm very picky about my food, so that's a different story). When we would go to the county fair for my singing competitions, my parents would drag me to demolition derby, and I would lose my voice screaming with excitement as the cars destroyed each other. My dad would get us tickets for hockey games, and I would end up taking pictures with the mascots and picking out the cute boys on the teams. My mom wanted to go sky diving to celebrate her birthday, and when she asked me, I said yes without a second thought. My friend wanted to go white water rafting – “sounds fun!” Another friend wanted to do archery - “sure!” I found a Groupon for fire dancing - “why not?!” Rappelling? - “yes!” Broomball? - “What time?”

My last long vacation was Thailand. I went on my own because I desperately wanted to go cuddle tigers at the Temple in Chaing Mai. So, I saved up the money and traveled to another continent on my own. I stayed with an old co-worker for a bit, but I was mostly on my own. I got to ride an elephant named Superman at an elephant rescue, cuddled all ages of tigers, saw a cobra show, a monkey show and a crocodile show. I was the only person at the crocodile show, so afterward, the guys wanted me to come take a picture with it (and to swindle tourists out of money, I'm sure). I said yes, of course! Most of the posing wasn't a problem, as I was behind that massive mouth of LaLa the crocodile. But then I got (easily) coerced into sticking my hand in LaLa's open mouth. I took MAYBE 3 seconds to think about it before putting my left hand (I'm right-handed) into her mouth and gritting my teeth for the picture. Was I scared? Yeah. But I did it, and it was fine. Sure, it might not have been. But I know that I would've regretted not doing it when I had such a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

I don't know if it's a death wish, or an adrenaline rush, but I'll pretty much try anything active once (more if I like it, which I usually do). I like to tell my friends not to ask me IF I want to do something, but ask me WHEN I can do it. That's also part of my problem. There are too many fun things I want to do and see. And whenever my parents ask what I want for my birthday or Christmas, I would always prefer an experience, never just things. I want to live and have fun, and being adventurous (in as safe a manor as possible) is what I consider fun. And at least I'll have a ton of awesome stories to tell.