Why We Adventure: Finding Ourselves After Everything Changes

How small walks, big trips, and everyday moments helped us rebuild a life

When Life Changes Overnight

When a life altering injury enters a family, the world narrows quickly into survival.

Hospitals. Home care. Therapy schedules. Medical decisions. Insurance battles. The relentless work of holding daily life together in the middle of shock and grief.

Every ounce of energy goes toward healing, navigating systems, and trying to find your footing in a life that no longer looks familiar.

And then, as happens for many families living with long-term injury, progress can plateau. Not because of a lack of effort, but because the body settles into the long-term reality of injury.

That’s when another layer of healing begins, one no therapist can hand you a schedule for.

It often includes grief for the old self, and the slower, more disorienting work of getting to know who is emerging in its place. Letting go of old dreams. Old rhythms. Old markers of adulthood.

Social rhythms change. Educational paths shift. Independence and connection grow more complicated than people expect. Life must be relearned piece by piece.

And still, life continues.

Still living.

Still deserving of joy, discovery, and growth.

That’s where Adventure With Jonny began, not as travel, but as a way back to life.

Adventure as a Bridge Back to Life

We didn’t start big. We started with anything that moved us beyond survival mode: a walk, a drive, a favorite restaurant, a movie, a bike ride, a boat ride. Something outside the therapy routine. Something that didn’t require meeting a goal or being evaluated.

Over time, those moments expanded, adaptive rock climbing, horseback riding, nature trails, community outings, church small groups, and volunteering. Later came road trips, national parks, a cruise, Alaska, Europe, and this year, a wheelchair-accessible safari in South Africa.

Each adventure whether ten minutes from home or ten thousand miles away did the same thing:

It created space for identity to grow without pressure.

No tests. No goals. No performance.

Just experience, exploration, and room to grow into a changed life.

It gave both of us space to breathe, to feel, and to rebuild.

In an unexpected way, adventure became a bridge between grief and possibility, between who Jonny once was and who he is now, between what we lost and what we’ve found.

The Paradox No One Tells You About

When disability reshapes a life, the limitations are real.

There is pain. There is loss. There is a restructuring of everything familiar.

But there is also something less often acknowledged:

Within those limits, there can be a a few unexpected freedoms.

When old structures like school, sports, and traditional timelines fall away, so do rigid calendars and expectations. We found ourselves able to travel in the off season, take last minute opportunities, learn through experience instead of textbooks, and move at our own pace.

Not everyone sees this part. But many families in the disability community know its truth:

Adventure can be a lifeline.

A classroom.

A healing space.

A place to rediscover identity.

And honestly, many young adults without disabilities travel for similar reasons, to explore, to grow, to understand themselves and their place in the world.

We simply found our own version of that path.

Where We’re Heading Next

How long this season will last isn’t something we can predict. Every season carries its own rhythm, and life has a way of restructuring itself over time.

But right now, adventure fits.

It keeps us learning.

It keeps us connected.

It keeps us moving outward into the world and inward toward who we are becoming.

I’m curious where it will take us next, near or far.

And if you’re walking through change, uncertainty, or the work of rebuilding after loss, maybe this is for you too:

You don’t have to know the whole future.

Sometimes you only need one small adventure to step toward it.

If something in this story connects with your own journey you’re welcome to share in the comments. I truly value hearing from you.

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