For Jenny Longstaff, heading into the unknown was the best thing she could have done.
It is ironic that my "best day'' required resigning from a job I was good at, giving away my adored cat to a stranger, vacating my home to uncertain care by renters, and leaving a city and valued friends I loved.
Yet this is what I did as a prelude to the day of my 55th birthday when I stood in a motorcycle shop in Sydney with my partner-in-grime, Roger, and realised he had just given me the best present I could ever hope for: a new motorbike and a new lifestyle.
We'd left Dunedin to thoroughly explore the less travelled roads of Australia for a couple of years, camping out as much as possible.
Ahead were times of tears and tribulations but on that day, oh!
What a heady mix of anticipation and freedom as we rode our motorbikes away to begin our adventure.
Some people thought we were thrill-seeking danger-junkies to travel like that, but life is never free of risk in any situation.
Safe at home?
Arteries can be hardening, cancer cells dividing as you sit on the couch; you can break a leg tripping over the rug; or the roof can fall in.
Some people never go anywhere unless five-star accommodation is involved; to them, camping is "poor-star''.
We were happiest and healthiest with five million stars over our tent, enjoying a close connection to real life.
How many of you have ever had a wombat in your tent?
Two years and 65,000km later, I had increased my knowledge of people and places and had become a "skill-seeker''.
Traversing physical and psychological landscapes, I learned so much about myself while tapping into my inner resourceful capabilities.
My visual awareness and thought processes were honed to the point where a fulfilling creative life is now my present and future.
I intend to have a succession of best days.
If you don't have two years to spare for a pivotal experience, consider this.
Parents, give your teenagers a head start by gifting them an Outward Bound course.
Young people, take up the challenge with these objectives: fitness, self-development, social development, values, environment, and service.
Learn to make life choices with confidence gained from finding out what lies within you: there is more than you think, and an Outward Bound programme will reveal it.
- Jenny Longstaff is a Dunedin writer, artist and poet, and in her third year as president of the Otago Art Society.
Your best day
Tell us about your best day. Send submissions to odt.features@odt.co.nz.
We ask that you don't nominate the day you were married or when a child arrived. But any other day is fine.
