Adrenaline

People in the military and other dangerous jobs tend to live life faster. They fall in love faster, get bad habits faster, make decisions faster. They tend to care less about social acceptance or social consequences. Mostly perhaps due to the very real threat of a shortened life span. Many of the men and women I know have had not one but several friends die far too young. Seeing people your age or younger die on a regular basis tends to activate a certain sense of responsibility to live life as fully as possible. We develop a why wait attitude. If there is something we want to have or do and we are capable then we tend to make our best efforts to accomplish this regardless of social convention or what we will be thought of. This isn't because we don't care what we are thought of, quite the opposite. We want people to know that we lived life, that we enjoyed it and made it our own adventure. We are not okay with believing life is a ride. That would suggest that we have no control. We idealize our lives. We indulge in happiness. We move forward after setbacks and we get make every effort to get up when we fall. You see, when we are gone we hope that we are remembered not simply as someone who enjoyed life. We want to be remembered as someone who struggled with life, someone who fought life, someone who turned life into a grand adventure and conquered as much life as was ours to have. We want to be remembered for helping others live life, helping the people of this world enjoy not just our lives but their own. We may be called adrenaline junkies, crazy, weird, insane, dangerous, or many other names by people who simply don't understand the importance of living an adventure. The adventure is more important than money, class, clothes, or any other superficial artifact that average people recognize immediately as something of substance. The thing is this world with the most substance has no actual physical presence. Joy, pure joy. It's a thing that's found in the eyes of lovers looking at each other. It's found in people with passion. Without passion life will be simply life. It's a word I find boring by itself. When it's called the adventure of life it sounds like something I want to experience. That's how it should be seen, as something to experience not something to simply do. Find a partner and live an adventure with passion. It's not a secret but it only seems obvious to very few. The people who risk their lives are the ones who cherish them the most. The people who live an adventure are the ones who know most what they have to lose and that's what makes it exciting. You don't have to go to war, BASE jump, or cliff dive to have passion and excitement but you do have to have passion and excitement to know what life has to offer. Don't live a boring life; travel at every opportunity, try new things, eat strange foods, love someone more than you love yourself.