Our POET Coordinator Pete Guyan loves the outdoors – but what happens when you have your family in tow and being indoors is the more appealing and comfortable option? Pete has shared with us his recent family adventure and how the best stories can come from choosing to get outdoors:
I was recently lucky enough to be on an island holiday with my wife, kids and two other families. We had been in Fiji for about 5 days and were all enjoying a sunny day in the pool. Then, in the space of about 5 minutes, the wind picked up, the skies darkened, the heavens opened, and absolutely torrential rain came bucketing down!
All around us families rapidly gather towels, pool side books and bags and scampered for the shelter of their resort rooms. Staff hurriedly lowered the shade umbrellas as the rain pelted down.
We also quickly gathered our stuff and headed for the safety of one of the rooms. As we dumped our belongings on the table in our room I turned to my kids and asked, ‘who wants to come back out there with me?’
Without missing a beat both kids gave an emphatic – ME! Then, to my surprise, ALL the other kids AND adults said they’d come too. So as dozens of guests passed us to their rooms, the 11 of us headed back out to the pool.
The rain was crazy, the wind relentless… but boy, was it fun being out there!
We could have gone inside, to the safety of our rooms, but we chose the outdoors.
In a few years from now, we aren’t going to say to each other ‘remember that time it rained really hard in Fiji, and we went inside and watched Toy Story?’
No, we will have a totally different story about swimming in a tropical storm!
I love that my family and friends chose the outdoors. We chose adventure.
What would you have chosen to do?