I was always a major fan of going out on the town – bars, restaurants, museums, it didn’t matter as long as it was a new experience.
When the pandemic hit and everything closed, I pointed my nose towards the outdoors and decided to hike the highest mountain that was closest to me: Mt. LeConte (base to summit) in the Smoky Mountains.
Funny enough, this was my first time hiking… and after going through that experience, I was completely enamored by the idea of hikes and views.
For the next two years, I found myself growing increasingly bored of coffee shops, restaurants, and bars… and eventually, I found myself thinking that an adventure was not an adventure unless it was outdoors with a view.
This was amazing at first. Driven by this idea, we’d visited nearly all the National Parks in the midwest (besides the ones in Texas) and eastern side of the USA – all of which were amazing and unique experiences.
This spearheaded journey of the outdoors came to a strong halt when Clara and I began taking our business venture, Clara’s Woodshop, more seriously.
And suddenly, we found ourselves more at home – waking up, working, sleeping, and repeating.
In almost a rebellious fashion, we would plan trips to state parks – some of which were incredible and some a bit more lackluster – as is the way of adventure.
But what surprised me the most though, is that I began to like some of my more “normal” days – lounging around the house, watching a movie, or even exploring a new restaurant or cafe.
I tested the idea of doing these things even MORE… to which I quickly grew bored and depressed about and overcompensated for it by doing ANYTHING productive – including but not limited to putting extra work into the business.
After a half a year of fighting and experimenting back and forth with these feelings, I eventually realized something very important: It wasn’t JUST the outdoors that had captivated me this entire time…
…it was my ability to create a comprehensive memory through photo and film from the experience.
Queue this beef jerky video experiment.
For me, simply filming this moment and creating a video from it… was incredibly fulfilling.
Intentional documentation with purposeful capture is and has always been “my thing”… I just never knew it until now.
Adventure, I realized, no longer had to be outside…
…adventure is within us and what we make of the moments we have.
