This is what I said to myself in the months leading up to my move to Japan. It was mostly just a band-aid of optimism for all the fears and uncertainties that struck me. I really had no idea what "adventure" meant at that point. And I definitely had no idea how many times I'd be repeating that phrase to myself and my new friends in my first weeks here ("HA! That's what you always say!" laughed Dave, after being here about a month). When I first began throwing around this euphemistic mantra, I thought of adventure with only positive connotations...as though it was the dawn that would brighten each day in which my fears or uncertainties became reality. Then I noticed: with adventure comes risk, and with risk, the possibility of danger and disappointment. Adventure, then, is not merely a matter of circumstance, but also of attitude.
