In the world we live in—filled with ‘touristy’ people whose greatest fetish is to take a selfie atop Macchu Picchu or conquer the sprawling dust bowl of Sahara in an air-conditioned SUV—the definition of the word adventure seems to have been skewed. It has come to stand as a mere marker of that ‘break’. A measly word that finds its expressions in the holiday photographs we’ve amassed. Ones that we enjoy sharing with our friends on social-media or over cups of tea. And thus, I think it’s worthwhile to give the word ‘adventure’ a relook.

According to the Oxford Dictionary,

an adventure is an “unusual and exciting or daring experience”. So we need not

travel across borders, climb mountains or explore dense forests to be considered adventurous. After all, it’s the perspective and desire of a person that matters more. Each person has his peculiar way of experiencing something new and unusual. For instance, a kid might catch a bunch of tadpoles from a nearby pond, put them in a jar and watch them grow into frogs-that’s his adventure. A person with acrophobia might find the greatest courage to perform a bungee jump. That’s an adventure to him. Finding challenging tasks to perform accounts as a new experience.

Apart from being unusual and exciting, as defined by the dictionary, there are other characteristics that the word inhabits. Adventure can also be ‘passion’, a true calling which engulfs the life and thoughts of a person, and makes his eyes sparkle with excitement at the very thought of it. Doing what one deeply loves and is passionate about is tantamount to an adventure for me. Be it reading-and-writing or climbing mountains or crossing the Arctic. It can be adventurous as long as it lends a spark of excitement and fills one with passion.

It also involves sheer dedication. Being dedicated is trying your level best. It need not necessarily mean being competitive, but it does mean that one should always try to surmount obstacles and achieve perfection or success in what he loves doing. And yes, when one is passionate about something, he conquers his mind, gains full control over his concentration and gets geared up. He is ready to face all the obstacles and challenges that the path offers. He might get beaten at some point, might even become a total failure, but deep in his heart, he knows that it was worth a shot. At the end of the day, he did what he loved, out of volition and not compulsion: Results be damned. With adventure comes freedom. By freedom, I mean the ascendancy over a person’s fear that shatters his anguish and gives him strength. Also, a person in adventure is intimated by the realm of the boundless. Perfection is intangible and success never-ending. Both perfection and success are immeasurable entities (no, not even money, power and honour can justify a person’s love for something). And once a person realises that, he’s freed of all the biases the world suffers from with regards to defining success and failure.

So, the way people pull off the greatest tricks, perform masterful acts of great artistry and share their experiences with the world can all be attributed to their adventurous nature. Their success-or their blissful failure—is the result of the roller-coaster rides that they’ve undergone (metaphorically speaking): situations turning from hot to sour, sour to sweet. The enjoyment and satisfaction from adventures make people realise that there is more to life than they’d wondered; that there are no limits around what they do and what they could do. Doing something new every day inspires them to roll the dice again. There is a cycle formed and this is just as critical as our life-cycle. These sequences in life play their part in making a man out of a child.

Dhakal recently completed his A-levels from Budhanilkantha School