answer the call to adventure
Life is really just one adventure after the other.
A revolving door inviting challenges, growth, and opportunity that string together to make the epic that is your story.
YOU are the main character – the hero, the protagonist – and you can choose to interact and respond to whatever life presents however you so choose.
Boarding my Turkish Airways flight from Istanbul to LAX on my final leg home from my month of travels abroad, I heard the knock of a familiar call to adventure. I learned that all of my roommates and friends were going to an Odesza concert downtown at the same time I was scheduled to land in LA.
I felt strongly compelled to be ignorant of the fact that I was traveling for 36 hours across the entire globe and decided to throw rational thought out the window. As my 15-min free WiFi window at Istanbul international expired, I fired off a text to my buzzing group chat – “Yo someone please find me a ticket to this thing. Getting ready to take off to LAX now. I have a feeling it’s gonna work.” And when my iPhone played the sweet sound to let me know my message had sent, I knew I had answered the call to adventure.
14 hours later, I hopped off the plane at LAX with a dream and a rushed disposition to make it to the show. Shoutout to my little sister for reminding me that the timing would work out as I grew increasingly frustrated by the fact that the people working baggage claim had a personal grudge against putting my bag on the conveyor before the bulk of my fellow 747 jumbo jet passengers.
My plan was simple - Uber from LAX to my apartment in Santa Monica, drop my bag, call another Uber downtown to the Los Angeles Historic State Park where the outdoor show was being held, give my friends a hug, and vibe all night long to one of my favorite artists. Simple, but a bold move indeed at rush hour in Los Angeles on a summer Friday when Google Maps advised me that such a plan would run me an estimated 2 hours in the car total for a mere 20 miles. After making it through customs and finally grabbing my bag, I hugged my family goodbye and made a dash for the Uber pickup spot.
The door on my East-African adventures was closing, but I would soon come to learn that it was actually a revolving door, swinging me right into the next adventure.
It usually it takes AT LEAST 15 minutes to get an Uber with the traffic at LAX, but to my pleasant surprise I had a visual on the Red Prius that confirmed my ride as I stepped outside and onto American soil for the first time in several weeks. Timing was on my side. At that moment, I had a good feeling about this, and I knew this was going to work out. If you ask me, there are few things more fun then deciding to follow a feeling into action and watching as the universe conspires to help make it happen. There’s a feeling of trust, of flow, of deeply knowing that you are EXACTLY where you need to be every step along the way. It is absolutely addicting, and a muscle of trust that grows with quality reps and positive reinforcement.
I was greeted by one of the brightest and most genuine smiles I’ve seen in a while - this one a signature expression of Jose from Guatemala. His large white teeth exposed by his hospitable grin brought balance to his dark skin and jet black hair combed over. He spoke very little English, but we were able to communicate fluently with each other for the 45 min drive from LAX to Santa Monica. I always like to ask people I encounter behind counters at shops – or behind the wheel of an Uber – what time their shift ends or how long they have been working that day. Partly because I am passionately curious, hoping to get a glimpse into the life and world of this individual, and partly because it gives me a chance to remind them that they aren’t JUST chauffeuring me around or enabling my caffeine fix, but they are a human leading a life as intricate and complex as my own.
I learned that Jose had been driving since early that morning and was going to call it a day after dropping me off to head back home, which happened to be – yup, you guessed it – Downtown LA. I shared with him the current adventure I was in the midst of and my plan to join my friends at the concert after coming off my worldly travels and he offered to go above and beyond the line of duty to assume the position of a coconspirator in this plan. He offered to give me a ride FREE of charge since where I was going was close to his home. I gratefully accepted since an Uber would have ran me over $50 to get downtown at that time.
As the car pulled up to my apartment, I realized I didn’t I didn’t have keys on me. Next adventure. After a quick reassurance to my neighbor on the situation, I removed the screen window and climbed through to the kitchen. In a singular swift movement, I dropped my bag, grabbed my keys, and made a beeline back for Jose patiently sitting on the hood of his car with his arms crossed smiling. In my haste, I forgot to change clothes, so dressed in the same attire I put on over 30 hours ago in Kigali, Rwanda, I moved to the front seat for the second leg of our journey and with a silent acceleration, Jose and I were off! There’s an energetic shift that happens when you move to the front seat, no doubt. Our relationship changed. It was no longer Uber driver completing a fare for a passenger, it was two unlikely friends on a road trip racing against the clock to complete a mission.
I learned a lot about Jose during the hour and 20 minute stop and go drive from Santa Monica to Downtown. He showed me videos and pictures of his hometown in Guatemala, we shared the common language of laugher watching youtube videos of traditional dances from his rich cultural heritage, and we fist bumped over shortcuts and backroads that were shaving minutes off our ETA. I learned about how proud he is of his eldest son who is studying economics, evident by the photos of the report cards he had on favorite in his camera roll. I learned that he had been a tailor by trade for 20 years, and was taking this year off as a sabbatical of sorts, but was planning on getting back into it in the next couple months. He actually had an interview on Monday to potentially be Kanye West’s personal tailor in Calabasas. I learned how earlier that exact day, Donald Trump passed a piece of legislation that affected immigration from Guatemala to the US specifically AND received funding from Congress on building a portion of the infamous “wall.” As I prepared for a first hand immigrant account at how terrible this must be for him, I learned to my surprise how must he actually loved and supported our president. The economy was good and stable for him and his family, he felt safe and protected, and by relative standards of corruption in his home country, he was grateful to be living in a place where the president actually cared about it’s own citizens and was enforcing the legal process of immigration that he had to take so much time and effort to go through. It was an enlightening perspective and interesting conversation to be able to have. Swept up in thought, laughter, and conversation, the Google Maps ETA had speedily ticked down to 2 minutes away. As we pulled up to the park and exchanged good-byes, Jose profusely refused the cash I was trying to hand him. I told him it was the least that I could do and left it in the cup holder as I was left with a “God bless.”
I closed the revolving door of the Prius to begin my next adventure, find my friends in a crowd of thousands. OF COURSE, as Jose pulled away and drove out of view, he left open the view of my friends directly across the street walking towards the main entrance. Not bad for timing! Unmistakable by my roommate Chad’s red hair and reaffirmed by his younger doppelgänger of a brother, I shouted for them and ran across to street to greet a group of open arms and dropped jaws in an awesome life moment. We all had an amazing night dancing, singing, and vibing HIGH at the concert.
With the view of downtown LA in the background, one of my favorite artists rocking the stage, and my friends all around me, I was sipped in a deep breath of perfect contentment with where I was and how I had arrived, excited for whatever adventure would swing open at any given moment.
Takeaway
Next time adventure calls, open the door. You can tap into this adventure mindset, and turn it on anywhere at any time. It transforms the most mundane into the divinely spectacular. Which is pretty much the whole point of this life if you ask me. Answering the call to adventure requires you to trust your intuition and follow feeling. As I learned from a mentor Paul Coelho in the Alchemist, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” Trust it.
This would have been a very different adventure without Jose. You never know what you might get from taking a chance on a conversation with a stranger. No one comes into your life by a mere coincidence. Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Be kind, get curious, and ask questions. It costs you nothing and may lead to a pot of gold. Challenge your assumptions and remember that there is ALWAYS another side to every story, so take every story with a grain of salt on your own quest of understanding. Be open to whatever riding the flow of life will lead you to. Open the door…