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A New Definition for "Regular Life"

Adventures are great but if you want to go on them all the time you have to turn your “regular life” into an adventure. All it takes is a shift in perspective, a re-alignment of priorities. Pretty soon every day can be full of novel and exciting experiences.

Alex Maier

After completing my 1,200 mile thru hike on the Pacific Northwest Trail, it was tough coming back to “regular life.” I had put so much energy into the hike that I never had a chance to look beyond it. Now that it was over I didn’t know what to do. Life was stable, predictable, and boring again. Everything seemed to stand still. I felt like I had discovered some great secret to life but I had no idea what to do with it. That sense of stagnation which had propelled me to do the hike in the first place was creeping back in. It felt like I was right back where I started, only this time I had the benefit of knowing an alternative way of living. 

The “regular life” wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Although a steady 9-to-5 job offered stability, reliable income, and material pleasures, that lifestyle felt like a trap. Time was my most valuable commodity now and I didn’t want to spend my days doing the same things, at the same times, and at the same places. What good is stability if life is unsatisfying? I couldn’t help but wonder, what would life be like if I could live like I did on the PNT, where every day was filled with novel experiences? I would need to be in control of my time, and I would need to find a path that would always be taking me into new territory. I made it a goal to go on as many adventures as possible. 

At first I thought that the only way to find adventure was to leave “regular life.” This turned out to be unsustainable for simple financial reasons. Leaving regular life was expensive. I would need to save up time and money, and neither of those commodities were easy to stockpile. Being unsatisfied most of the time in order to fund a relatively short adventure didn’t seem like a good option. To live fully, I would have to break down the separation between the two ways of living. I’d have to figure out a way to turn regular life into an adventure. My preferred form of adventure was going deep into the wilderness, so that became my top priority. Anything that brought wilderness into regular life in a sustainable way was deemed “important.” 

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