Into the Wild

Tonight I am pup sitting for my best friend and her husband. They are at an overnight wedding and have two adorable young yorkies that needed someone to take care of them. As my reign in corporate America came to an end yesterday, I took up the offer to have a slumber party with the pups. Yeah, ok it's Saturday night. I guess I should be at a bar, but my liver is still recovering from my send off work outing from this past Thursday. Guess that's part of getting old, you never quite bounce back as quickly as you did in college. Sad.

Anyhow, the pups are napping now after dodging a skunk in the back yard (don't worry friend if you are reading this, we avoided the skunk, your pups do not smell like garbage), so I've decided to write a new post about something I often find myself debating about.

Perhaps you've heard the story, read the book or seen the movie about Chris McCandless, aka Alexander Supertramp. After graduating college, instead of doing what was expected of him...going to grad school or landing a "real job" and becoming just another cog in the wheel that is corporate America, he gave away all his money and set across the US on a great adventure. Granted, this great adventure lead to his death in an abandoned bus in a remote location of Alaska, but a part of me can't help identifying with what he had set out to do.

I read Into the Wild, the story of Chris McCandless, last summer, and a particular quote struck a cord with me. It goes a little something like this:

So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.

I am now living my life by this quote. I've lived a secure life and conformed to what society has expected me to do, and although my life is good and fine, I have not been satisfied. Now, by giving up my job and apartment and moving to a new state, my adventure begins and I am looking forward to where this new road will take me.

So I ask you this...was Chris McCandless onto something when he said this? Or was he just a delusional dreamer? Is it crazy to give up the security, conformity and conservatism that we're taught to embrace just to save the adventurous soul that lives within us? Am I a delusional dreamer as well? Perhaps, but I'm willing to take this journey to find out.