{"id":16709,"date":"2019-07-02T14:25:25","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T14:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/?p=16709&post_type=story"},"modified":"2020-03-30T15:19:36","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T15:19:36","slug":"why-i-embrace-adventure","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/why-i-embrace-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Embrace Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer 2019 | By <\/i>Gene Kruckemyer ’73<\/strong>
\n[lead]Adventure is often just around the corner.[\/lead]<\/p>\n

When I was a kid growing up in Orlando, I\u2019d explore with\u00a0friends on what we called the Penny Bike Ride. We\u2019d pedal\u00a0to a corner, flip a penny and ride whichever way the coin directed: Heads, go left; tails, go right.<\/p>\n

Some trips would unceremoniously end up right back\u00a0on our street after circling the block. Other times our\u00a0adventure would take us miles away into the unknown as\u00a0we pedaled not sure where our expedition was heading or\u00a0what we\u2019d see. Abraham Lincoln was our guide \u2014 at least\u00a0until it was time to head home for dinner.<\/p>\n

I think these early explorations set the pattern for me\u00a0to later embrace the draw of adventures when I wasn\u2019t\u00a0sure where I\u2019d end up or what would happen, such as\u00a0canoeing through the sweltering Everglades, camping in\u00a0the freezing Yukon Territory, backpacking through desert\u00a0and mountain wildernesses, spending the night in an\u00a0abandoned California mining ghost town, hiking sections\u00a0of the Appalachian Trail, and being pulled into many other\u00a0grand and eye-opening adventures.<\/p>\n

Heading out on an adventure is not something to be\u00a0pushed into. Nobody likes being pushed. It\u2019s more about\u00a0being pulled into it. To me, that curious pull of anticipation\u00a0is a strong draw to discover the unknown.<\/p>\n

Going on an adventure is not only about finding out something about the world, but more importantly, it\u2019s\u00a0about finding out something about yourself. While doing\u00a0something that is out of the ordinary for you, you discover\u00a0what you can face, endure, accomplish and overcome.<\/p>\n

[photo id=”17001″ title=”UCF-Pegasus-Sum19-Why-I-Embrace-Adventure—Illustration-by-Tim-Bower2″ alt=”illustration by tim bower” position=”center” width=”100%”]ILLUSTRATION BY TIM BOWER<\/span>[\/photo]<\/p>\n

Adventures teach us to see the world in a new light and\u00a0may show us how resourceful or strong we are \u2014 or maybe\u00a0aren\u2019t. You might find some answers, but they may not be\u00a0the answers you\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n

Half the adventure is getting there.<\/p>\n

I once went on a vacation road trip with my wife, Nancy,\u00a0with no destination in mind \u2014 just the plan to drive until\u00a0we decided to stop. In this case, that happened to be about\u00a0700 miles away in Appomattox, Virginia, near the site of a\u00a0key Civil War battle and where generals Robert E. Lee and\u00a0Ulysses S. Grant signed the paperwork to end that war. We\u00a0stayed in the area a few days to explore the history, then\u00a0headed out again to our next unknown destination stop \u2014\u00a0which turned out to be Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.<\/p>\n

We stopped because we didn\u2019t want to drive into the\u00a0Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

Our destination wasn\u2019t the ultimate goal; our journey was.\u00a0I have no desire to parachute out of a plane, jump off a\u00a0bridge tethered to a bungee cord, or eat chocolate-covered grasshoppers. And on the scale of things, some of the\u00a0adventures I embark on pale in comparison to what some other people may approach.<\/p>\n

Not everyone\u2019s definition of adventure is the same, but\u00a0everyone should at least have that next adventure to look\u00a0forward to \u2014 and it doesn\u2019t have to be expensive, distant\u00a0or dangerous. Sometimes it is just taking the time to\u00a0understand where you are. It has been said that if you\u00a0don\u2019t know where you are, you don\u2019t know who you are.<\/p>\n

Even little Opie Taylor, son of Sheriff Taylor on The\u00a0Andy Griffith Show<\/em>, saw the allure of adventure. When he\u00a0was nearly displaced from his bedroom by a visitor coming\u00a0to Mayberry, he looked forward to sleeping on the family\u2019s\u00a0ironing board propped between two chairs. He called it\u00a0\u201cadventure sleeping.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opie had the right attitude. He took something simple \u2014 even mundane \u2014 and turned it into his own personal and\u00a0exciting adventure.<\/p>\n

I \u2014 we \u2014 need to interact with the world to understand\u00a0it. That\u2019s why I still like to set out on adventures large and\u00a0small, such as exploring Boston, Philadelphia, Portland,\u00a0the Florida Panhandle and Charleston, South Carolina, in\u00a0the past few years. But I also embrace the adventures of\u00a0make-believe in a backyard treehouse with my imaginative\u00a0grandson, finding shells and interesting driftwood along the\u00a0beach, and discovering that some of the best things are the simple things.<\/p>\n

Even writing this turned into an adventure \u2014 when\u00a0I started, I didn\u2019t know where it would take me or how it\u00a0would end. And that is what adventure is all about.
\n[divider][\/divider]
\nGene Kruckemyer \u201973<\/strong> took the adventure of enrolling\u00a0at the new and uncharted Florida Technological\u00a0University in 1969 \u2014 long before it was known as\u00a0UCF. After a newspaper career, he now serves as the\u00a0university\u2019s news editor.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16993,"template":"","categories":[1000],"tags":[248],"class_list":["post-16709","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-why-i","tag-alumni","issues-1348","issues-summer-2019"],"yoast_head":"\nBenefits of Wanderlust: Lessons Learned from Going on Adventures<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"UCF grad Gene Kruckemyer \u201973 shares tales from his lifetime of adventures and why it's important to embrace new experiences.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/why-i-embrace-adventure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why I Embrace Adventure\" 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