One of my favorite movies growing up was the movie, Extreme Days. It’s a pretty small release film so don’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of it. It’s pretty cheesy, and isn’t necessarily the greatest film ever made. However, the concept of the movie is one that I’ve always been interested in. It’s essentially a story of 4 friends who go on a road trip across the west coast of the United States. Along the way they participate in a variety of extreme sports, and learn a lot about themselves.

While I do follow some extreme sports and have always really wanted to be good at surfing, living in the Midwest typically isn’t the most helpful for that avenue. With that said the reason that I’ve always been drawn to this movie is because of the fulfillment of adventure that the characters in the movie find. While not every road trip ends up being some dramatic experience, there is something about having a quest that one is seeking and then eventually finding it along the way.

While this blog might not seem like the greatest adventure for some people reading, for others there is some adventure in looking through life through the eyes of another person. While I have yet to take that grand adventure I have come to find that some of life’s greatest moments are those of the ordinary unexpected kind. When you take an ordinary weekend and decide to create a massive game of laser tag, or maybe it’s going out and rethinking the constellations, maybe it’s playing basketball in the park. Whatever it is there can be magic in the moment of the ordinary. The reason surfing has always stood out to me is because a surfer is literally in the moment of organized chaos. They have to choose exactly the right moment and exactly the right wave and get in at exactly the right time to stay right in the pocket of that wave. If you’re too fast or too slow, you miss that moment. If you pick the wrong wave you miss all the other ones.

When you go through life looking at things only as extreme adventures or boring ordinary life, you miss the moments that mean the most. The times when you are riding with friends and telling jokes that while you might not remember the jokes you’ll always remember the car ride. The moments where you realize that you have something in common with someone else on such a level that nobody else will ever really understand it. The moments that you come to the realization that life is less about coming for something to do and more about coming to do something. When we honor other people with our time and attention, we give a away something. When you take the ultimate risk to be vulnerable and honest, you are riding the wave of life. Sometimes you’re going to fall, sometimes you’re going to stumble, but sometimes you’re going to find that perfect moment and turn life into something magical. So I invite you to really take a look around and find what Extreme means to you.