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GROUND ZERO
"I want out." It's scrawled into the grime of the truck I'm stuck behind. Ironic, I've been thinking the same thing. As my ass falls asleep for the fourteenth time, I imagine what it would be like to haul it up a mountain. Or burn it down some single track. Maybe just plant it on a beach and contemplate the distance I just paddled. Anything besides having it sit in this steel casket wallowing in another "gapper" induced traffic jam; waiting to deliver some proposal of earth-shattering importance to another monkey stuck in a tie. I WANT OUT. I want to go back to the promise. That post-collegiate feel of the endlessness of time and possibility; of the boundless promise that existed before I jumped behind a desk and started living my life through the stories of friends who had made the "foolish" choice. The ones who had ignored the job fairs and instead chose the life of the adventurer. It just didn't make sense to me at the time. Why would I want to go to living out of a car, chasing winter storms just to ski fresh powder? Or the spring thaws just to paddle big water? I had one of the country's hottest companies telling me they'd love to have me on board. How my insight and ability to multitask across horizontal cross-functional groups would really be an asset. I could … I could lose my%#$*^!* immersing myself in other's tedium! Yeah, that made sense. Why bother visiting another culture or running a class V rapid when I could just read about it? After all, smell, touch and taste are overrated senses. But there is no going back. I am 30 years old and must accept the choices I made for myself. Start acting like an adu… What the hell am I saying? I didn't lose the ability to choose at age 29. Choice and change are the only two constants in the world. So that's it, I choose to change. And the first step is to get out and go. Go find the adventure that the world held at graduation. Because it's still there. The world didn't change. I did. And I can go back. There are places as yet explored. Adventures and adventurers I have not yet met and I am inviting you to come on the journey with me. You should join me. Either way, it's time to go. So tell the boss to, well, you know what you can tell him… I'm outta here! I'm Benjamin C Trips, and I'll see you out on the road. 
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