Recently, I had the opportunity to look at my college diploma for the first time. I expected to feel excited or proud, but instead, I felt a pit drop in my stomach. Not wanting to concern those around me, I put on a brave face and beamed a smile, but deep down, I couldn’t look at this paper and see the end. The only thing I could see was a terrifying beginning.
In 2009, pilot Charles Muntz inspired millions with a single line: adventure is out there. This wasn’t in real life, though. This was in the Oscar-winning film, Up. In the film, his words brought together Ellie and Carl. Spoilers for the one person who has never seen the movie: Ellie and Carl get married and spend their life together. After a heart-wrenching opening sequence, Carl says goodbye to his best friend and wife. In addition to this tragic loss, Carl is haunted by an unfulfilled promise to Ellie for a grand adventure.
Grand adventures—as portrayed in stories—are singularly focused. Defeat the bad guy, save the love interest, find the hidden treasure, there’s always a clear objective, and protagonists are singularly focused on this task. The task itself may not be easy to achieve, but it’s certainly simple to explain. Stories focus on the details relevant to this task with little superfluity. Writers won’t discuss the protagonist paying bills or vacuuming unless it’s important to the plot, and the mundane complexities of normal life are rarely relevant to the plot.
For Ellie and Carl, however, those mundane complexities are the obstacles that prevent them from going on their grand adventure. Every time they’re close to saving up enough, life keeps getting in the way until it’s too late, and Carl realizes their grand adventure will never happen. Normal life got in the way, and the opportunity was over.
While staring at my diploma, I started fearing that my opportunity for adventure was over. The early years of life belie a simplicity that make you feel like adventure is possible, like you could get whisked up in an epic journey at a moment’s notice. Now, when I think about travel, my first concern is making sure the food in my fridge won’t spoil. Life continues to become infinitely more complex, and it will never become any simpler. I was terrified that beginning this new phase of life means the end of a simplicity that makes adventure possible.
I was terrified until I remembered a later scene in the film. While flipping through Ellie’s Adventure Book, Carl realizes that adventure doesn’t need to be found in the mesas of Venezuela. It was there, all along, in his home, in simpler moments with Ellie. Reflecting on this scene made me realize how much could happen in the coming years. Sure, some adventures will no longer be possible, but plenty of new ones will. A new chapter of life brings with it new challenges, new complexities, and new opportunities. Life won’t be easy, but it certainly won’t be dull, no matter how dire the future appears. Adventure is out there, you just need to know where to look.