...for the Summertime Spontaneous

There are a number of things in my life that I deeply enjoy.
I enjoy waking up at 5:30 in the morning to surf with my best friend.
I enjoy singing in my car and pretending I am in a music video.
And I enjoy more than most anything in the world, reading.
Give me a book and I will sit and read for hours (as long as my schedule allows) and I will come back to tell you that no matter what it is I have just read, there is a story to be told.


I look at this element of my life and how intentional I am to seek out the stories these authors are trying to tell and realize that the story I am currently writing doesn't always do the same. As the author of my own life, where am I being intentional in making sure there is always something worth sharing? Worth taking from? Worth living for?


If I am not fully living my life, then what am I doing with it?
More often than not I allow myself to settle for complacency and put off adventure for the fear of risking too much. And to this I realize that by sitting back and letting others write best-selling novels I am risking far more than a chapter or two spent in the hospital recovering from a trek through the Alps or a morning hike gone awry, I am risking the opportunities to build relationships and thrive in new communities. 


As a college student who was blessed to have met lifelong friends and take spontaneous adventures this summer, I am learning day by day to be intentional in my actions and inquisitive in my conversations. For me, these steps are leaps toward a better story. I think at times I run off to the towns these books are based in and tell myself I can be them. I can do those things and take these trips and see other sites but when I imagine all of that happening, the go-getter in me forgets to create a partner in crime or a group of friends to do so with.


As the college student who has had a summer filled with dancing and star gazing, homemade dinners and outdoor concerts, I am that same college student who focuses too much on what it is that needs to be done and not enough on who it should be done with. Because looking back on the summer I have had so far, it wasn't so much what we were doing, but who we were doing it with. It was the nights spent talking and the days laced with challenging questions and new insights that made me reflect on how memorable this summer has been for me.


I fear leaving this season and falling back into the same routine of thinking ahead and always worrying about tomorrow. As college students who have enough on our plate to worry about, I challenge you all to a new adventure, not another line on your already-full to-do lists. 


In the time we have left before we have to pack up our rooms and head back to the familiarity of class schedules and dormmates, I want to send you on an adventure right where you are. Seek out the relationships around you and rewrite the chapters in your textbooks and turn them into novels. 
Be spontaneous.
Be adventurous.
Be intentional.

Let go of the fears of looking back on a life that could have been lived and start embracing the opportunities to create memories and community all around you.