How it all started

I first created this web page on Thursday, June 09, 2005. At the time I was in a long term relationship that was no longer feeling good to either of us, I was just about to approach my 36th birthday, my daughter was 5 and enjoying full time school (at last!), I had a well paid job that I enjoyed but which was starting to feel a bit repetitive and unchallenging. So some, or all, of these factors may have contributed to me deciding, quite out of the blue, on the Northern Line between Stockwell and Tooting Bec, that what I really wanted was an adventure! Of course I didn't have a clue what 'an adventure' was. I just really knew I wanted one.

As I contemplated this idea I could only think of a long list of things that weren't an adventure. At least not to me. Holidays to Thailand? Taking up Skydiving? Setting up business of my own? None of these felt right. It could be that I was just the fussiest would-be adventurer on the planet, but none of these things counted as an 'adventure' in my head.

So I asked my friends for ideas, and they all suggested the same sort of things - Vegas or climbing a mountain? No thank you. And I realised that actually finding a suitable adventure was going to be quite a mission in itself. I had a little personal blog that I was enjoying writing, and when I found the blogger.com name 'I want an adventure.blogspot.com' available I felt I had to take it. And the first post here on June 9th simply consisted of me saying 'I'll let you know how I get on with my adventure plans,' and a witty friend leaving a suggestion in the comments section -

Lord Miros said...
How about an anal adventure?

Did I say 'witty friend?'

So not much has changed, this is still where 'I'll tell you how I'm getting on with my adventure plans'. And I still haven't found an adventure. I dismissed Lord Miros's suggestion too.

So it's now September, why a three month gap? Are adventures really so hard to find? You're probably wondering if I'm the slowest adventurer in the world? Well, in my life lots of things have changed since Thursday, June 09, 2005, I've split up with my partner of 11 years, I've moved house, I've been promoted, I've coped with the summer holidays as a full time working Mum, but during all this life chaos one thing hasn't changed at all, one thing I feel now more than ever; 'I want an adventure!'

So, it may well be that I am the worlds slowest adventurer, I do regularly wonder if I'm qualified to be an adventurer at all. My only attempt at finding an adventure in recent months involved terrible planning and the worst timing. At the beginning of July, just a few weeks before leaving my partner and moving to a new house, I decided to place an advert in the Classified section of Time Out, this said, 'I want an adventure! Ideas, suggestions, missions?' and listed my Hotmail email address. I got a few nice responses, most from people who were simply curious, a few from people who seemed to quite fancy the idea of adventuring too. I only had one serious e-mail suggesting an actual mission. 'YOUR FIRST MISSION IS TO SWIM IN THE THAMES RIVER ON THE EAST SIDE OF WESTMINSTER BRIDGE AND HAVE SOMEONE TAKE A PHOTO OF THIS WITH THE LONDON EYE IN THE BACKGROUND. EMAIL THE PICTURE TO ME TO PROVE YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED THIS MISSION.'

This wasn't a good first mission, I can't swim! At school I failed my 10m Swimming Certificate, I can swim a few strokes I admit, but I am still scared to go out of my depth. As I wondered what to do about this email I was confused about the rules of 'IWAA*', and whether I actually 'had to' do this mission! I decided there are no rules, except any rules I made up myself. It was my idea, I could make the rules up as I went along, I didn't need to have any rules at all! I tried to convince myself of all this but somehow I still couldn't bring myself to click 'close' on that email. It was only an email, but it felt bigger than me, I couldn't delete it. Why did I feel I had to do this silly swimming challenge? It was a stupid 'mission', and I was scared I might drown!

So as you can see I am a very flawed would be-adventurer, and sadly, so far, this mission has been uncompleted, this IWAA site has been neglected for months, and I even have some emails I haven't even replied to. It seems highly unlikely that I'll ever succeed at being an adventurer at all, I suspect that most people, you included, would be much better at adventuring than me. I started out thinking, 'I want an adventure!' which was a very selfish statement. I now realise that I don't want to be a flawed, rubbish, selfish adventurer. I might still be rubbish and flawed but at least I don't have to be selfish. I now hope I can use this web page to help other people find the adventures they want. 'I want an adventure! Do you?' is my new tag line. So... Do you? Email ME@IWANTANADVENTURE.COM if you want an adventure too. I will try to reply this time, I promise.

As for my adventures? I do still hope to complete that Thames swimming mission, and I also have another secret adventure plan, it came to me on the tube between Tooting Bec and Stockwell... I'll let you know how it all goes. I hope you'll tell me if you find an adventure too.

*I Want An Adventure. (I thought I needed an acronym.)