A Heart for Adventure

Thoughts from a teenage girl about voyaging, post-voyage . . .


I just re-read The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C. S. Lewis.  If you've read it in the last year, you may understand what I'm about to address.  If you've never read it, please do so now.  It is a very good book.  If you have read it but not in the last year, by all means, read it again.  Anyway, when I had gotten to about the last quarter of the book, something occurred to me.  The characters of this book are on an adventure.  And that may seem like an obvious point if you've read the book, but let's let that sink in for a moment all the same.  They are not just on some little escapade during which they might stop at home for a lunch break.  They are not in their basement with a video game controller in each of their hands staring at a television.  They are really, truly, on an adventure.  Let’s look up the definition of that word for a moment...

1. an exciting or very unusual experience.
2. participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises: the spirit of adventure.
3. a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome.

Well, the first two points are rather predictable, but re-read number three: a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome.  Wow!  I'd say that's a pretty accurate definition of what's going on here.  And in the midst of reading about this real adventure, and realizing that it is in fact an adventure, I learned something about myself:

I want to go on an adventure.

What's that?  A teenage girl who's unhealthy scared of spiders, who couldn't stand up to a well-rested six-year-old, who happens to specialize in crumpling to the ground when she feels her space has been invaded, wants to go on an ADVENTURE?

Yup.  You got that right.

I often hear people talk about how a thirst for adventure is very near to the heart of every man and boy.  In essence, that males wish to be challenged, and to face that challenge and overcome it.  They wish to conquer, to discover, to claim, to win.  And I believe that all of that is true.  It's one of the things I really like about males.  Y’know, cause I’m a female and I like males.  Pretty crazy, I know.  But something I almost never hear is talk about a thirst for adventure near to the heart of every woman.  And that makes me sad, because it's something that I believe to be very important.

I think a common misconception is that women don't want to go on adventures because adventures are uncertain and unsafe.  People often think that women prefer to be safe, to be looked after and protected, to be peaceful, to be quiet, to be constant.  And to some extent I think they are right.  I do enjoy those things.  But there's more to it than that:

Why would I desire safety if there was nothing dangerous to be safe from?
Why would I desire peace if my life did not also include unrest?
Why would I desire quiet if there wasn't also noise?

I want to go on an adventure because I long for these things.
I want to be in danger, to be scared - to be terrified - because being protected, being looked after will mean so much more.
I want to see unrest, to be stuck in the middle of wild, untamable uncertainty - because then, finding peace will feel so much deeper.
I want to hear everything, noise upon noise coming at me all at once, overwhelming me with volume - because when it ends, quiet will be so much more real.

One cannot truly be appreciated without the other.

But that all said, there are more reasons that I want adventure!

I want to be scared because it makes me feel alive.
I want to discover because seeing new things opens my eyes wider.
I want to get dirty because it teaches me and toughens me.
I want to experience the world because it gives me reverence for God’s beautiful creation.

The list goes on.

The point is, I am a girl, and I want to go on an adventure.  I want to be swept off my feet and taken somewhere new.  Right now, the one who does that is God.  And that will never, ever change.  But I believe that one day He will give me a man who will make my adventures exciting in a new way.  One day the man I love will knock on my door, sweep me off my feet, and take me somewhere new.  Maybe somewhere loud and scary and dangerous and unpredictable, so that he can protect me and lead me.  Maybe not.  But wherever I go, whatever I do, however my life unfolds, I believe that it will be an adventure.  With high points and low points, noise and silence, fear and safety, uncertainty and peace.  And that variety will be exciting.