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Kimberly Hula
“A man practices the art of adventure when he breaks the chain of routine and renews his life through reading new books, traveling to new places, making new friends, taking up new hobbies and adopting new viewpoints”
Wilfred Peterson
For the first half of my life, I can remember giving only one answer to the question of what I wanted to be when I grew up: A writer.
I’m not sure how this came to be, other than the fact that I was painfully shy as a child and writing was the one activity in which I felt inexplicably confident. I was first “published” in the third grade. My poem was a simple stanza on the benefits of being me, and it lacked any hint of irony or sarcasm. (This still fills me with pride, no matter how embarrassing the content.) As a 10-year-old, keeping a journal was second-nature, and like many teenagers, I channelled my angst and confusion into poetry which remains, thankfully, unpublished. At 16, I didn’t hesitate to enter my local newspaper’s Halloween horror story contest and was the youngest, by far, of the three winners. I experienced a minor set-back in my dream career when I watched “All the President’s Men” and realized that my intended college major of journalism didn’t seem to be a good match with my introverted nature. In a panic, I ended up majoring in Public Relations, for which I was equally unsuited, but its curriculum left much time to continue writing, through elective classes and my involvement in student organizations.
However, this once-pleasurable activity soon became a source of frustration. Accustomed to praise and support for my writing, I was ill-prepared for the critiques I received from professors and peers. One of the most painful experiences of my life was listening to faculty advisors and fellow executive board members of the campus literary magazine bash my blind submissions for its upcoming edition. I had plenty of company in the reject pile, but that was of little comfort after what I’d heard. (More …)
This adventure takes an INCREDIBLE amount of strength and will and I applaud you for it. A wide-eyed (see: terrified) writer myself, I am just so very proud of you! This is just the first of many future words! (and if they are at all like your posts, let the words keep coming!)
You are so kind, Kimberly! You are a fantastic writer … your posts amazing. And, really, everyone’s posts are so inspiring and lovely. I adore this community’s adventuresome spirit.
What a wonderful post – and what fantastic determination! It takes a lot of strength to keep persevering. I admire your spirit, eatveggiesdrinkwine!
I also admire your spirit. It shines through all of your adventure stories. It would show regardless, but a very important part of the “shine” comes from your sparkling prose. It’s a real joy to read. Please do keep it flowing because it nourishes all of us lucky enough to share your fine wines.
I love, love, love the scent of lavender. I even tried to grow it, but my Black Thumb is so much hardier than any plant. There was no question about the fragrance I would choose in my initial soap-making attempt.
The first – and possibly most challenging – step was to find the Martha Stewart Holiday magazine that I bought (okay, I admit it) 3 1/2 years ago. While looking for the instructions, I came across a recipe for limoncello. Umm…but I digress.
The needed supplies were already in a basement cabinet, purchased…well, you can probably figure that out; I’ve wanted to try this for a long time. The process was really quite simple: cut the amount of glycerin desired off the block, and then chop it up into tiny pieces. At first, I was going to melt it in a double boiler, but I had visions of future chocolate truffles tasting faintly of lavender bubbles, so I opted for the microwave. Not difficult.
Once the glycerin was liquefied, I added lavender essential oil, color, and oatmeal flakes that I had run through the food processor. (The last ingredient was my own idea. No dried lavender around, but I thought things needed a little texture.) I used plastic yogurt cups as my molds and let the soaps harden for a couple of hours. The result is shown below:
When it comes to “authentic” soap making, I cheated. There was no lye, no lard/vegetable shortening, no constant stirring involved. I have a book with “real” soap recipes on my shelf, and one day I’ll experiment with one of them. But for now, I have my pretty little pink (pink?!) rounds of lavender soap, and they smell delicious. I feel calmer already!
Wow! I love the addition of oatmeal! These look fantastic!!
Youre a real deep thinker. Thknas for sharing.
Well here I am, beginning my journey of 52 adventures with these very words. I’m throwing ideas around in my head of what I can do this year that will challenge me, scare me, and even want to do again. I have a few in mind, but it gets more and more difficult to think of new ones. Then again, these things can’t all be planned out, now can they?
I am limited to the abilities of a 17 year old girl, both physically and permissible by parents. We’re not the poorest family on the block, but money restraints restrain…allot. So it is time to use my imagination! Creativity runs deep in my blood stream (unlike iron…maybe I’ll make a spinach pie? Yum ^^). My mom was an artist and stage actress, and everyone on my dad’s side has some form of artistic talent. I myself am an artist, and am found often sketching one thing or another.
I’m already thinking of new ideas as I write this that I haven’t before! I’m really excited to get started this week with my first Adventure. I can’t wait to share with you what happens, and I can’t wait to drag along my crazy friends into my endeavors. We all share a bond of doing wild things. It helps that nearly all of my friends are boys, ready to risk their lives for a new skate trick, or a use an abandoned hospital as a playground for parkouring.
Like I said before, I am limited to what parents say is “okay”. However, I’ve done quite a few things without their knowledge, which makes things so much more edgier. Do not worry older and probably more responsible people of this blog site- I WILL NOT DO ANYTHING THAT WILL ENDANGER THE LIVES OF ME, MY FRIENDS, ANIMALS, OR PEDESTRIANS. We may be crazy teenagers, but we’re responsible about it. Most of the time I’m the “Mother” of our group. Making sure we do stupid things less stupidly.
Well, I think I’ve covered quite a bit in this blog post; about myself and how I plan to go about adventuring. So I believe I should write down a few of the things I want to do:
1. Keep my Garden Alive. (this isn’t just a one week challenge though- this needs to take place throughout the entire gardening season- which can last up until November)
2. LEARN TO SWIM. (My Boyfriend claims to teach me. So have all of my friends in every Summer since I was 9…we’ll see what happens)
3. Paint a Masterpiece (or the best I can, and finally use the canvas sitting in my closet) (More …)
Adventure does not recognize age! Create an adventure, find an adventure – or some times adventure comes to you when you least expect it – watch out! Welcome, welcome, welcome to the adventure train.
Awesome ideas! Better swimming is on my list, too – I want to do a triathlon, but the swimming part has held me back.
I agree with adventurechaser, there is no age in this adventure club. AND those are some pretty fierce and admirable upcoming adventures. I cannot wait to hear more!
Thank you everyone. ^^ I can not wait to start telling you the outcome of all of these, and new ideas as they come along! ❤
uncleneil, 
blueskiesinva, 
eatveggiesdrinkwine, and 1 other are discussing. 
inkstainedangel, 
The Year of 52 Adventures 
modpix 9:43 pm on June 17, 2010 Permalink
I love it and am promptly stealing it to post on FB. I needed to read this. I will post soon, promise. I started to get ready to do it and was interrupted by a friend needing a chat. 🙂