{"id":6667,"date":"2016-01-16T13:08:18","date_gmt":"2016-01-16T18:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newvinegrowing.wordpress.com\/?p=6667"},"modified":"2019-06-07T13:38:04","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T17:38:04","slug":"lara-zielin-commits-to-everyday-adventures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/lara-zielin-commits-to-everyday-adventures\/","title":{"rendered":"Lara Zielin commits to everyday adventures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: I recently had a long, beautiful conversation with one of my besties, Lara Zielin, about what we’re doing with our lives, what we want and what’s holding us back. The next morning, I found this\u00a0guest blog post in my inbox. Inspired by our conversation, she pitched sharing her new commitment to everyday adventures with readers who care about living life intentionally. Her post is about saying yes to life, and I wholeheartedly say yes to that.<\/em>
\n

\"Lara
Lara Zielin wrote this guest post about saying yes to life and committing to everyday adventures.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nI realized recently that I\u2019m scared. It\u2019s taken me a long time to figure this out because on the outside I do okay. I go to work, I clean my house, I volunteer, I work out, I pay bills on time. Blah blah blah.
\nBut something was off. Even though I couldn\u2019t name it, I saw it manifesting in my life.
\nLike how much I was drinking, for example. My favorite thing suddenly became coming home, pouring a big, fat glass of wine (or three or seven), and watching television. I looked forward to this. Many days, it was the highlight of my day.
\nOr how much I was eating. I had been able, through diet and exercise, to discard about 10\u00a0pounds over the past few months. But it came raging back\u2014and then some\u2014the second I let up on the gas. What was this monster I was barely keeping at bay? Why did I want to pad myself\u2014literally<\/em>\u2014and what was I trying to protect myself from<\/em>?
\nThe biggest thing I noticed is how little I wanted to leave the house. People would ask my husband and me to do things and my first instinct was no. Make that a Big Gulp sized absolutely not<\/em> with a side of nuh-uh<\/em> and an extra serving of fuck that<\/em>.
\nI looked around and marveled at the people who, effortlessly, went to art openings and parties and neighborhood get-togethers and actually seemed to be enjoying themselves.
\nI wanted none of that. But such a drastic response didn\u2019t feel right. This didn\u2019t seem like an introverted answer to too much external stimuli. This felt like something was off. In fact, my introverted friends were doing laps around me in the social category.
\nAnd that\u2019s when it occurred to me that I was scared. Actually, Elizabeth Gilbert\u2019s book “Big Magic<\/a>” helped me put an official name to it, but I had been sensing, even before I read her first chapter, that I had a fear problem.
\nI was terrified of putting myself out there.
\nI was too fat, after all.
\nI was too ugly.
\nI was going to get hurt. Someone, somewhere was going to find a way to wound me.
\nNo matter if I succeeded or failed, I was going to open myself to criticism.
\nIn other words, I was going to mess up. And people would notice.
\nDid I mention I was too fat?
\nThis isn\u2019t how I\u2019ve always lived. But that kernel of fear has always been there, I think. And, honestly, it\u2019s getting worse as I get older.
\nExcept, then this thing happened.
\nI was in the airport in Detroit this past August, and I spotted Josh Gates. You might read that and think, \u201cWho?\u201d but for me, this was the one person I longed to meet. He is the host of a Travel Channel show called “Expedition Unknown<\/a>.” Before that, he hosted a Syfy show called “Destination Truth.” If you\u2019d put a list of celebrities in front of me and said, \u201cWho do you want to connect with?\u201d I would have answered Josh. Every time.
\nAnd it\u2019s not just that he\u2019s handsome and hilarious\u2014because he is\u2014or that he is a natural leader who\u2019s not afraid to be self-deprecating. For me, what I love most about Josh is his quest for adventure. He\u2019s going to places and seeing things that most of us only dream about. Even if he didn\u2019t have a TV show where he was paid to do this, I think it would still be inherent to who he is.
\nSo of course I stalked him in the airport.
\n\"Lara
\nAnd because he\u2019s the nicest person in the whole world, he left his comfy first-class lounge and took a selfie with me.
\n\"lara
\nThis meeting changed me<\/em>.
\nI knew<\/em> I was supposed to run into him. And you can roll you eyes at that, but in my heart, I understood our paths had crossed for a reason. Not because we were supposed to be best friends or he was suddenly going to start following me on Twitter. It was deeper than that. Josh was a lesson for me. I felt this way down deep, where my realizations about my fears were also starting to dawn at the same time.
\nJosh was a reminder for me not to lose my sense of adventure. When I was a kid, I wanted work for National Geographic and have fantastic experiences around the globe. In my 20s, I went on a cattle drive in Montana and went on a tornado chase across the Midwest. I traveled abroad when I was in college and was never afraid of meeting people or experiencing new things. After I divorced my first husband in 2004, I boarded a plane and went to Italy by myself. When I finally found and married my soulmate, I felt both fearless and delighted, like the whole world was full of possibilities.
\nWho, then, was this person who was suddenly afraid to leave her couch and was numbing herself with wine and food? Who was this person who was hiding from the world?
\nI wanted to change. I wanted to overcome my fear and have adventures again.
\nI also understood inherently that I didn\u2019t have to go to Italy to have an adventure. I didn\u2019t have to make this crazy hard.
\nFor me, the issue wasn\u2019t whether or not I could board a plane. It was whether I could choose every day to do something that got me out of my comfort zone. Could I choose to, say, go to a museum instead of watching television?
\nCould I say yes to invitations instead of no?
\nCould I go places and experience things that were within my reach?
\nI want the answer to be yes. So I\u2019ve decided it\u2019s time for change.
\nOne thing I\u2019ve done so far is to stop drinking for the month of January. I feel so much better already. I might stop drinking for longer, but I\u2019m at least going to do one month. This article from the Chicago Tribune<\/a> inspired me in spades.
\nAnd I\u2019ve started to say yes to more of the right things. One night, I asked a friend to drive to Detroit with me and eat Syrian food. It was Thursday. It was raining<\/em>. I don\u2019t even eat Syrian food. If ever there was a night to stay home and drink, this was it. But I did it. My friend helped me. And it was awesome.
\n\"Lara
\nLooking ahead, here are more things I want to say yes to:<\/p>\n