I grew up with three brothers, so my childhood was what some might call an adventure.
I spent summer days pulling weeds out of a small area of the woods behind our house so we could have a fort. I could ride my bike all the way down the street, turn around in the cul-de-sac, and make my way up my driveway, all with no hands on the handlebars. I had watched all of the James Bond, Jason Bourne, and Oceans movies by the age of 10.
Somewhere between the age of 10 and 24, I decided to exchange my mud-pies for real pies, my action movies for makeup tutorials, and my brothers for girlfriends. I’m not sure that this was an overnight switch. I think I slowly transitioned into a girly-girl. By the time I got to college, I had somehow lost every trace of my adventurous childhood.
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Upon meeting my now-husband, a big adventure guy, he asked me how I felt about hiking and camping. “Eh,” I said, as my older brother called me out for pretending to even debate the idea of it. My now-husband refused to take “eh” for an answer. He purchased a double sleeping bag and a queen sized air mattress. “Just in case,” he said. To which I replied, “we’ll see.”
When the time came around to write my vows, I thought long and hard about what I should be vowing to my husband. Of course I wrote down the easy ones first: I promise to always love, to take care of you when you’re sick, blah blah blah. But I wanted something more meaningful to us. I thought to myself: I need to prove to this man that I am taking our happiness seriously. That his happiness is now my happiness and vice versa.
So I wrote, word-for-word: I promise to make this life an adventure.
Josh and I have been married for 4 months and 28 days. In that time, we have had too many adventures to count! I’ve already learned that every day with this man is an adventure. We don’t have to be climbing mountains or swimming deep into the ocean to call our life an adventure. Every day we explore deeper into the past, present, and future of one another. We learn about each other, about ourselves, and about our relationship. Our goal is to build happiness on our adventures. Happiness can come from more than just GRAND adventurous. I’m the happiest I have ever been, and it comes from everyday life. To name a few of my many adventures with Josh:
Honeymoon in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Spent a weekend in Chicago
Nerded out in Harry Potter World – also, as you can see I upgraded from the iPhone 6 to the iPhone 8 Plus inbetween Chicago and HP World…what a great upgrade for my photo quality 🙂
We went to church together and spent time cherishing each other
And, believe it or not, we actually went hiking
Can you believe it? Me. Chloe. I went hiking…and I had a great time! We found a state park in Tampa while visiting my dad and step-mom over Thanksgiving. It was beautiful and fun to be hiking around palm trees. As we were leaving the park I asked Josh when we could go on our next hiking adventure.
I think this stems from a lot of things. I think it stems from my adventurous childhood and also the adrenaline boost I get while out on the trails. But most of all, I think knowing I am building Josh’s happiness brings joy into my own heart.
Check out my List of Happiness I made:
The moral of this post is to continue to try new AND old things, continue to be an adventurous friend, a good brother or sister, son or daughter, mother or father, significant other, and continue to explore what makes you deeply and truly happy.
