When the best adventure is the settling

People have a habit of telling us to never, never, never settle. As if to settle is to fail. Sometimes, I think this is really good advice, but, as is such the case with almost all advice, it's not exactly a one-size-fits-all diagnosis for life.

Sometimes, settling is good. Sometimes, it's necessary.

The past few years of my life have been the epitome of adventure. I graduated university. I moved. I got a job. I quit my job. I moved again. I met a man. I traveled around a country so grand it sometimes didn't feel real. I moved and traveled more and more and then, I got married and moved yet again. And finally (finally) things started to settle.

But then something strange happened: I started to feel like I was doing something wrong. Like I was somehow wasting my opportunity to live as a full-fledged adventurer. And the more I looked at the perfect highlight reels of Instagram and Facebook and the blogosphere and the more people I met who had just come to Australia, still fresh in the tourist state of mind, the more inadequate my own life felt.

How absurd!
 
How absurd that I would think this life of mine, that was so carefully and generously crafted for me, that allowed me to live and work in Australia, that allowed me to marry a man far beyond my wildest dreams, that allowed me to feel deeply, in-my-bones, at home, could somehow be not adventurous enough. And that was when I realized that the collective they, who keep demanding I never, never, never settle, were wrong.

Sometimes, settling is good. Sometimes, it's the best kind of adventure.

For nearly two years, my life felt like one giant transition. Nothing felt steady or substantial, and very few things felt like real life, whatever that means. But over the past few weeks, with visas being approved and jobs being provided and business ventures moving forward, life has felt more regular. More normal. I'd be lying if I said I never envy the vagabond lifestyle. But I'd be lying even more if I said this settlement isn't the adventure for which my heart has been aching.

Hopefully with the coming of cooler weather and the more regular schedules, we'll be able to venture out a bit more. No matter how often or how far out of our suburb of cafes and sights we venture, though, I'm glad to be here. I'm glad to have settled, even if it means my weekend trips are fewer, my social media feeds less extravagant, and my day-to-day grind more typical. To have the opportunity to settle, after all this time? What an adventure.

What's your adventure looking like these days?