If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to drive on the left side of the road – don’t do it. It’s terrifying.
James and I had the chance to drive on the left side of the road when we visited the UK last fall and it was a once in a lifetime experience. I mean it… a once in a lifetime experience.
Despite the terror of operating heavy machinery with a different part of the brain than we were used to, I really loved driving down the tree-lined roads of England. We explored an area of outstanding natural beauty (that’s the actual name for it – they call it an AONB). Imagine every fairy tale landscape you’ve ever seen – that’s the Cotswolds.
The landscape is filled with green rolling hills, stone walls and windy roads that lead to old mill towns with cottage-style houses and bubbling creeks.
Our favorite part was just driving through the tree lined streets and seeing the fields of sheep peacefully grazing. The trees had splashes of red, orange and yellow on the leaves.
It’s now one of our favorite things… driving into the unknown.
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There’s only one thing to do on a rainy night in Scotland: watch Frozen 2 in the local movie theater. We had already been to the larger than life Christmas fair in the middle of the city multiple nights, so it was time to change it up.
Our first impression of the movie was not a good one. We are not super big Frozen fans, but we do enjoy a good Disney story. Mostly, we thought the music was subpar and the story rushed.
Fast forward to today and we’ve listened to the soundtrack more times than we can count. James and I like to sing loudly in our car, and it’s hard to beat the belting ballads from the Frozen franchise. We know all the songs by heart… especially “Into the Unknown.”
The song has now become a battle cry for us. When we thought about what we wanted this next year to be like – going boldly into the unknown was one of the themes. We want to be bold and brave and try new things.
Obviously, coronavirus makes that more difficult… or does it? I’m not so sure that going into the unknown just applies to traveling to new places. We’ve recently discovered a lot of “unknowns” right in our own backyard.
After the social distancing measures began and our gym closed, James and I started taking daily walks and discovering hidden trails in Fullerton. The funny thing is that these trails aren't really hidden. They’ve been under our noses this whole time. We just never had a reason to explore them.
Once we started walking daily, we discovered so many new things about where we live. Our understanding of our neighborhood grew, along with our ability to appreciate it.
We also found a new habit that we'd like to continue beyond the shelter-at-home orders: walking and hiking.
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The funny thing about the unknown is that we have this way of making it this large looming monstrous thing, when it’s really all around us.
The unknown is as vast as the world is long or as near as that trail you didn’t know existed. It’s hidden within unasked questions, unopened doors, unexplored relationships and talents buried deep in us. The only thing stopping us is our curiosity and willingness to open those doors.
We only find what we seek – and if we only seek what we know, we won’t experience new things that terrify us and thrill us at the exact same time.
Running into the unknown is a lot like driving on the left side of the road.
There will be things that you hate and things that you love.
You may have no idea what you are doing – but you will be doing it.
And you may just discover a part of yourself that you would have never known if you stayed exactly where you are.