Finding Adventures

I had written a Facebook post a few weeks ago where I had mentioned what I called my “Six Month Rule”. I realised that it would make a fabulous blog post. With this being the start of a new year, I thought this would be a great time to share it. So, Happy New Year, Everyone!!

January is a time when everyone wants to start new things and make changes in their lives. Personally, I prefer March for that purpose as I prefer to hibernate in January and February, and seem to find that my body and mind are in a lull until early March, when the earth starts to wake up. It is also hard to get excited when it is -50C and dark outside. I digress, and maybe worth a blog at another time…

My “Six Month Rule” originated when I left university for my first job out of school in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. I was finishing off the edits to my Masters thesis outside of work for the first few months, but still found myself with a lot more spare time that I was used to having while being mired in thesis, assignments, lab reports, and exams of my undergraduate and graduate study years. I found that I did not quite know how to fill it. I was in a new place and needed to meet some new people. I also realised that I had spent so much time focused on school work that I felt like I did not know what else I was even interested in doing. I had a lot to figure out.

Luckily for me, there was a British fellow by the name of Rob who introduced himself to me through some of my work colleagues. He had discovered ballroom dancing a few years earlier after finding himself in a similar position as me after he finished his doctorate in Wales. He managed to convince me to try it, and I ended up in the dance studio for ballroom dance lessons. I really enjoyed it. It was rather disappointing that it has been something that I have not had the opportunity to do since leaving Knoxville. I was and still am so glad to have had that experience.

During that same time period, I also discovered mountain biking, purely by accident. Although, depending on the person, someone could say that there are no such things as accidents and coincidences!! I was out walking my young puppy out at Haw Ridge one fine February afternoon where I witnessed all these people on bicycles were tackling some pretty interesting single track. I thought that it looked like a ton of fun and would love to add this to the things that I should try.

My bike had a fully rigid frame, but it did have the wide tires with the aggressive treads, so I figured it would suffice enough for me to figure out if this was going to be something that I wanted to do. I loaded the bike into the back of the 1998 Ford Ranger that I drove at the time and with my puppy, we headed out to Haw Ridge for me to try mountain biking one Sunday afternoon. It was even more fun than I thought it might be! The highlight of the afternoon though was to bail off the bike and have the bike land in a hornet’s nest. That took a bit of negotiating to get it extracted while trying not to get stung. It was added to my “absolutely must do” list. Having discovered the limitations of the rigid frame, I was going to have to add a bike purchase to my “to-do” list to make this happen.

By this point, I realised I had tried two new things in six months. This was making life really fun and really interesting. It was giving me options and ideas for how I wanted to spend my life outside of the office. Just trying something new was fun and adventurous. This was when I decided to make a pact with myself. I decided that I would try something new every six months for the next few years until I could decide what I wanted my non-working life would look like. 

I was only in Knoxville for seven months before I moved back to Canada. It was another new place and there were new people and new things I was going to try. The six month duration made sense with the changing seasons and it gave me time to really enjoy the new thing, if it was something that I wanted to check out more than once.

For the next few years, I embarked on my policy of trying something new. And even now, when life feels a bit stale or stagnant, I will revert to the “Six Month Rule” as I have always called it. So, this is the list of things that I have tried while following this rule:

1. Ballroom dancing - I loved this! This was so much fun and if I had stayed in Tennessee, it may have become permanent.

2. Hockey - I always wanted to play hockey. I managed to get my hands on gear and try it out. I played from 2001 - 2009.

3. Rock climbing - This was also fun, but not enough that it stuck. It wasn't that convenient either where I lived.

4. Mountain biking - I upgraded my bike after my afternoon at Haw Ridge. It became a significant part of my life for many, many years. I still love to ride and I do wish I could ride more than I do.

5. Snowboarding - I broke my wrist the first time I was out, but I did love it. It didn't stick for a variety of reasons. These days I just stick to downhill skiing if I am at the ski hill, given my long experience with skis.

6. Karate - I loved this! I actually studied 2 different styles of karate - freestyle and Shitō-ryū. If I hadn't taken a bad hit in hockey in Feb 2009, I'm sure this would still be in my list of things that I do with my time. I studied martial arts from 2003 - 2008.

7. Sewing - This was more of a re-discovery for me. However, since it wasn't a regular part of my life during the 1990s, I thought I would include it in this list.

8. Canoeing - I did this a few times with my ex-boyfriend. I'm not sure if it was him or if it was the canoeing, but I didn't find it to be that much fun. So, this did not make the cut for a "do again" or "continue".

9. Cross country skiing - Not something that was a part of my life in the 1990s. I did it when I was in intermediate/high school. I re-discovered it with some cycling friends and have done this most years since. The seasons I have missed have been because of lack of snow or injuries.

10. Sailing - I took sailing lessons one summer. While I didn't mind being on the water, it just wasn't something that really grabbed my attention when it came to actually doing it. I think I liked the romance of it.

11. Yoga - Not the greatest fan of yoga, but when I left karate, I found I missed the stretching and muscles being worked feeling, so this was what I tried. However, even though I am not a fan of it, my body now needs it, so I do it.

12. Bellydancing - I enjoyed this, but I was struggling in my personal life at the time, so it didn't stick. May have to try this again sometime in the future.

The “Six Month Rule” made for an interesting time. The cool thing is that I have a list of things that I like and I don’t like. I learned a lot about myself and my abilities through some of these ventures.

Nowadays, when I invoke the “Six Month Rule”, it is less about adding to my busy life, and more about changing the energy of my life, or stretching to meet some new people or even to spend time with a friend. It is about spicing things up and feeling alive.

The “Six Month Rule” is something that I am proud that I did. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone. More importantly, I learned that lightning does not strike, nor does the earth open up and swallow you if you show up someplace alone where there are lots of people that know each other and you know no one and yet, have never done that they all know how to do and it’s the thing you are trying. It is so worth it. Never let the fact that you are on your own stop you. Don’t let that prevent you from expanding your world. Be brave and embrace the adventure!