A Grand Adventure?

Generally, adventures happen without our permission.  However, occasionally, we plan our own adventure.  For instance, I've been planning an adventure to Africa for almost 6 months now.  It's been one of those things where I am talking about it, planning for it, buying for it, and, finally, actually packing for it.  

And then suddenly it's the night before the big day, and I have to face the fact that tomorrow, at 10:30 am, I'll be getting on a plane, and I'm not going to be back for 2 months.  It's then that all the hopes and dreams and plans and predictions are tested.  All at once, everything that "was going to happen this summer" is actually happening.  Unfortunately, I know that nothing is going to go as planned, and that things are going to happen that I haven't prepared for, and I'll probably cry at least once.  In other words, it'll be an adventure.  

In books, when the hero initially refuses the chance to go on an adventure, I was always a little confused.  I mean, here's this chance to go somewhere completely new and do exciting things.  Why on earth wouldn't they want to go?  Yet here I am, on the edge of going somewhere completely new to do exciting things, and suddenly, unexpectedly, I start thinking, "Why exactly am I going halfway around the world for the summer?" My house seems a little more cosy, my friends seem a little nicer, the sun a little brighter, and I start thinking "Gee, my legs would look pretty nice after a good tan..."  

And I understand.  I understand why people don't want to go on adventures.  Especially introverts.  Because at home the weather will be nicer, the people will be friendlier, and your legs will most likely be a heck of a lot more tan.  At home there isn't scary people with whom you have to make small talk, nor is there every kind of infectious disease on the planet.  There isn't 50 pound boxes you have to carry through the airport in your incredibly wimpy arms.  You don't have to wash your clothes in a bucket, and you don't need to sleep in a tent.  

However, if I go to Africa, I'll get to meet new people.  I'll get to live out of a suitcase, try new foods, and see new things.   I'll get to fly over the ocean, and I'll get to help orphans. I'll do first aid and other medical work.  I'll have chances to help there that I never would have had at home.  At home, I can count on everything being exactly how it's always been.  If I stay home, I know that, at the end of the summer, I'll be exactly the same as I've always been.  If, however, I go to Africa, I can't possibly return the same.  

And so it's here.  The Grand Adventure I've been anticipating and dreading is finally ready.  I don't know what's going to happen, and I don't know that I'm even going to enjoy myself.  

However, if I knew all that, then it wouldn't exactly be an adventure, would it?