In 2007 I launched LTD Daily, a website committed to my ramblings, travel, and life experiences. My best friends through college often responded to questions about life with a declarative, “we’re just living the dream”. That phrase later transformed into my life mantra, and in many ways became my personal brand. I have always considered myself a dreamer, falling victim to 2AM ideation and irrational sleeping habits stirred by new ideas or upcoming hiking trips. But all too often, I’ve received feedback and input from my readers, friends, and family. The unfortunate truth is that “the dream” often seems unobtainable. Dreams seem to rest up in the clouds where we have minimal access on a daily basis. And so the easiest response is simply to look up every so often and think about how far away those dreams are. It’s suddenly not much of a mantra, is it?

Some of my fondest childhood moments were library sessions with Mrs. Westrick. My first memories of powerful storytelling, these library sessions opened up my imagination and took me to a place that I could create on my very own, with a few animated pictures to guide me through. Mrs. Westrick introduced me to the very books that I give to my niece and nephew as they grow up. Poems by Shel Silverstein, the Polar Express every Christmas, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, well before the movie ever came to be. Every story in the library was told with great enthusiasm and excitement, a different voice for every character and dramatic pauses between pages that had a roomful of antsy first graders in silent awe. My favorite book of all time, Where the Wild Things Are, tells the story of Max, a disobedient boy who was sent to bed without supper. Max creates his own world where he is king of the wild things of the forest. I could listen to Mrs. Westrick reading Where the Wild Things Are over and over each day, even to this present date. It was an unimaginable adventure unravelling right before my eyes, every single time. I have to note one of my favorite parts of the book:

“And [he] sailed back over a year
and in and out of weeks
and through a day
and into the night of his very own room
where he found his supper waiting for him
and it was still hot.”

To this very day, I have a full sense of gratitude for those defining moments of powerful storytelling. I affiliate wild to those childhood memories of heightened imagination and the sensation of an adventure, whether in fiction or in reality. The definition of wild simply states that an entity is living or growing in the natural environment, as it’s meant to be. Wild is neither tamed nor domesticated. Wild changes and adapts to its surrounding, but never succumbs to the pressure of expectations or social norms. Being wild means going beyond “normal” and breading conventional bounds that often become barriers. In my own life I not only hope, but expect the daily adventures to exceed the norm and push beyond conventional.

Now, as we kickoff 2015, I am inspired by these childhood memories and anticipating the future ahead. And today, I introduce This Wild Adventure, which features a lot of the same content, look, and feel of LTDdaily.com. While I hope that I never outgrow the dreamer mentality, I’m refocusing on the truth that with each day comes an adventure. We could spend our energy determining whether an adventure is deemed big or small, but I find more joy is simply claiming each adventure as wild. Exceeding the conventional, in an environment in which is was created to live. Much how I have challenged myself to help those around me understand their hopes and dreams, I continue to do so in pursuit of wild adventures, whether rooted in local coffee shops or on global expeditions.

Here’s to our wild adventures.

photo source: death to stock photo