There Has To Be Something More... Right?

[MatthewFur]

[I'm not sure if this qualifies as a rant, per se, but it's a long enough post to be considered one. Also, I wasn't sure of where to put this. I approach the point pretty slowly, so be prepared to read...]

It all started with The Lion King, when I was around three or four years old. It was my favorite movie, really. I would crawl around on my hands and knees either at daycare or at home, pretending I was a lion. I would let out a squeaky, pitiful attempt at a 'roar' then proceed to dash down the hall on my hands and knees. I used to get rug burn, and my Mom eventually told me to cease and desist, because I'd worn holes in the legs of all my jeans from crawling so much. I knew how to walk and run upright, I just didn't do it often.

And then a few years passed, and that one movie with the horse came out from Dreamworks. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmeron. Uh-huh. You know where this is going, right? Constantly, I'd put my 'hooves' out in front of me, pretending to be running at practically the speed of a car. It was fun, until my Mom caught me one day. (Then it was just embarrassing.)

Needless to say, this continued on and on. It got even better/worse when I got an iPod, and was exposed to video games like Kingdom Hearts and TLOZ, where I could brandish a keyblade/sword and be a 'hero'. Granted, the play isn't as childish as before, but it's still the same premise.

This is why I'm constantly shut up in my room, with my door closed and my iPod on. It's why I'm anti-social, as well - I've made my own world; the amount of attention I have to pay to this one is minimal, right?

HERE'S THE POINT:

As I'm getting older, I realize it isn't really because I'm childish, but because I'm dying for something amazing to happen. I love going new places with forests and wide stretches of land, rivers and creeks, because I want to find something - I want to go on an adventure. I want to explore. Can you understand how I feel? Does anyone else feel this way?

It can't just be day in and day out, can it? Isn't there anything amazing to experience - like shifting, for example? There has to be something exciting and unexplored, paranormal, adventurous - anything. I've grown so bored with it all. Routine:really? Is that it?

I want to connect with things never heard of, be it astral projection, shifting, or even things outside of the 'furry world'. Can true adventure be found anymore, in the literal sense?

TL;DR: The day-in-day-out routine just can't be all there is to life. Is there anything that can cure an adventurous spirit?

[Puncia]

Well you are only 17, so you still have many years in front of you before you're even considered an adult. If you were 18 and in Europe, I would have suggested InterRail with a friend, but I'm not sure if there's an American equivalent. I don't have the time to google it either.

I think you just need a hobby, something to do during your spare time that does not include a computer. Even if you have to search for something you've never done before. You're still young, you have a lot of energy and it's completely normal to be restless.

Finish school, get a steady income, because it's important to have a good foundation as well. I don't know if you have a "proper" job or not, but I know that having one will let you see how much money you can afford to spend on your spare time, and you can via that calculate what you can afford to do.

As  to hobbies, I suggest looking deeper into something you already enjoy doing. If not, check if your friends have any that you may consider. Hobbies are always better when shared with friends. Voluntary work, skateboarding, there's tons of stuff to do.

[Otebon Albrecht]

I too have suffered and still do from what you are calling an "adventurous spirit". Mine started and has been propagated by the books and movies I watch. After being inundated with Heroes, Legends, Mysteries, Adventures, and other such high ideals... how can one NOT wish to become part of that tradition?

The trick to "curing" an adventurous spirit is simple: don't. It's not the adventurous spirit that needs to be cured, but an outlet for that spirit.

Now... here is where other people will begin to get upset with me. I don't think you need to look into the shifting and astral projection areas for interest. I personally think that they aren't all that they are cracked up to be and will not offer you the "cure" you're looking for. Instead, I think that you have a creative impulse that needs to be tapped into and used.

Your profile says you are 17. Assuming this is accurate, try joining something like a single's club or an activity group. I say this because groups of that caliber exist primarily to organize trips and things to do like Rock Climbing, meals, museum visits, bike trips, hikes in beautiful locals, and other such events that get you out of your day-to-day humdrum life, meet some interesting people your own age, and do... something!. When you go to a high-wire course for the first time, believe me... it will be an adventure to settle your blood.

If that is not available to you (or to do in your downtime) try writing, reading, or some other form of creative expression. Take a walk in the park and let your mind wander. You want to live an adventure? Well, the probability that you can don your shining armor and wield a mighty sword to slay the dragon in this world is fairly slim. That doesn't mean that you can't do anything. That walk in the park becomes more than just a 1 mile trek to get the blood flowing and it becomes a hike to look for the rare plant to cure a friend dying of a mysterious illness. All it takes is seeing what you do in a new light.

As for the writing, reading, or perhaps even visual arts, there you can explore your adventurous spirit even more. Write the stories you wish to read and experience! Believe me, as a writer, the excitement is still there.

It may take a bit to get to a point you are happy with, but all good things are worth fighting and working for!

Otebon Albrecht.

[FurryJunky]

Puncia explained it really well, only thing I can add to that is start out small and go big. And being able to do it with other people will make it that much more interesting and fun.
You have allot of years in-front of you to choose what you want to do with you life, there is no need to stress out over it.
Being 17 myself I should know.
 
Any more questions, just ask.

[MatthewFur]

If that is not available to you (or to do in your downtime) try writing, reading, or some other form of creative expression.

Yeah, I write a lot. Fiction is my best stuff. Still, I do wish I could live it. And, joining clubs and stuff would be beneficial; I do need a better social life. I don't have a job; just quit mine because while working the fryer, my arm was lit on fire. There's an adventure, haha.

Yeah, I suppose seventeen would be a restless age. I take plenty of walks as well, Otebon, so I get what you mean. 

Thanks for taking the time to reply, guys.

[Otebon Albrecht]

At the cost of sounding silly...

No problem bro!

I am 20. I know that my "pedestal of age" is only a few inches taller than your own, but I know what you're speaking of. I spent long hours of my childhood just wishing I could be like my literary heroes and join them in their quests to defeat evil and what not. To be honest (and a bit embarrassed) I still do.

I joined martial arts for the training, ethics, morality, and so I could better understand what my heroes had to do. I can tell you it wasn't long before I started imagining my sparring opponents as the Orcs and Demons of my books and my fights were more than getting points for tournament rankings!

I began to write and draw (though I must confess my skill is still basic at best). I began making my own characters and imagining out every detail of the journeys I would send them on.

It's a fun world out there. All you have to do is look at it at just the right angle.

[Riku Aotsuki]

There's a term for it. Wanderlust. The need so see people and places not often seen, to let go of traditional life and go on an adventure! I know how you feel. Walks, writing, drawing... they help, but you'll find they'll never be enough. People like this... A lot of us die young because we wind up as adrenalin junkies, attempting to sate the need for excitement. As it was said, you have a choice; a long and boring life, or a short, exciting one.
Of course, I'm not saying to become an adrenaline junkie. Just saying, it happens.

[MatthewFur]

Haha, don't think I'm gonna be an adrenaline junkie. Nor am I going to get high, because I could see that happening to people like me, as well. And you hit the nail on the head; walks and writing is great, but it doesn't actually do it for me. Maybe that's why I've gotten into this new furry territory!

[Puncia]

Save up some money, bring a friend and do http://www.interrailnet.com/ . I suggest you're at least 20 though.

[anoni]

You should join scouts or try camping! They are fueled for adventure and go all around the wild and the world, doing new things and learning life-long important skills! You could also play video games, but that might not be the experience you're after.

For me personally, this might not help you I'm not sure, you can find such excite from learning about the universe.

  Let me give you an example.
 
  Right now, in your body, you are made of particles known as atoms. The amount of atoms in your body is substantial, there are quite possibly more atoms in your body than stars in the Milky Way. Each individual atom is made up of nucleus of clumped together positive protons and neutrons (with no charge), around this nucleus is whirling around electrons. Right from there, we can look back and say that, that's pretty amazing, think about it, what defines you as a person involves trillions of tiny electric bolts moving at super fast speeds spinning around an impossibly small radius.

  But that's only one thing, the nucleus of the atom is also quite spectacular. It was discovered by a guy called Rutherford who literally (and yes this is the scientific word) bombarded gold with alpha radiation. Imagine it like a wall of large balls being shot by billions of little pellets at high speed (Gold atoms being hit by helium nucleus's (alpha particles). As a quick side note, most of particle physics involved hitting two things together at really high speed, how do you think we may of found the Higgs Boson? We got a proton and a anti-proton (Another cool thing about antimatter is when matter and antimatter come together, they hit each other and (another scientific description) annihilate each other creating substantial amounts of energy) and then whacked them together at 7 TeV (That's about the same energy of a fly hitting your shoulder, now think that a single particle can have that much energy). Anyway, so back to Rutherford, he discovered through the deflection of the bombarding alpha particles, that the nucleus is about 99.99999% smaller than an atom. So if we were to say an atom was as big as a football stadium, the nucleus would be a grain of dust. So by comparison that means that you're 99.999999% empty space (because the atoms in your body are 99.999999% empty space).

  So that's great, but what about the nucleus. WELL, the nucleus is made of protons and neutrons, we won't worry about the neutrons so much (although you should look them up, they're responsible for fission and the nuclear bomb). So anyway, protons have a positive charge of +1, now you may recall that like charges go apart. If you think about a magnet, (oh yeah, electricity and magnetism are actually kind of the same thing, whenever you have electricity you have magnetism and vice versa) if you put two "north" sides of the magnets together, they will repulse. If you put two positive charges together, they will also repulse and try and get away from each other. Now if you think about the nucleus of an atom, lets say the atom is helium, we have two protons in the nucleus. These protons are in a space so close to each other (a spec of dust in a football stadium of an atom, which there are more atoms in your body than stars in the galaxy) they are trying to get away from each other REALLY REALLY BAD. The force is so strong that gravit, has absolutely no significant effect on these charges, the repulsion of these charges just absolutely dwarfs the attraction of gravity. So, a force that holds these particles together is known as the "strong nuclear force" or just, strong force. It's called strong force because it's very, very strong. It holds these particles together into the nucleus with such strength that even the overwhelming repulsion of the protons can't beat the strong forces attraction. Now, the strong force only works in very short distances, smaller than an atom, but at these distances it is very powerful.

  So, a small summary. What we've learned today is that you are made of billions of tiny spinning electric charges, you are 99.99999% empty space and your atoms are under a constant battle between the forces. I think that's pretty amazing and exciting.

[Growlithe]

I plan on hitting a big road trip across the States right as I turn 18 and before I enlist in the air force. If you're old enough, a road trip to end the Summer wouldn't be a bad idea. You could always just hang out with people in other towns. I do that a lot. It feels good to see another city and take in whatever it has to offer. (I read the tldr part. So this is according to that lol)

[Døvu]

i couldnt help but smile when i started to read this, because i dont think i could relate more. It all started when i watched the lion king, it was my childhood, and my cousin and i would play pretend we were animals just like you did. I share your fascination with wildwrness, exploring, adventure, paranormal, and anything abnormal and exciting, particularly relating to our purpose here. Who knows what the meaning of life is, honestly, who cares? What happens happens, were born and we die, so why waste time trying to find out. The meaning of MY life is to experience and see the world, to venture out and do something that scares me in someway everyday. I love rock climbing. Its becoming my biggest passion, and im moulding my life around it, because it makes me happy and theres nothing like it. The sensation of being hundreds of feet off the ground, sharing the incredible view with all sorts of birds who are curious about you passing by their nests. When you sit back and rest in your harness and you thinking about where you are and what youre doing, thats the moment when a smile of satisfaction runs across your face because you realize you dont have any worries. So thats my recommendation to you if youre looking for adventure.