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 Jonny was first injured, our world narrowed into survival: hospitals, home-care, five days a week therapy, doctor appointments, insurance battles, equipment decisions, and holding a family together in the middle of grief.

Every ounce of energy went into healing, navigating systems, and trying to get our footing.

And then, like it does for so many families living through trauma, progress slowly plateaued. 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 that no therapist can hand you a schedule for.

It’s the grieving of the old self.

The confusing work of getting to know the new self.

The letting go of old dreams, old rhythms, old markers of adulthood.

Friendships changed. School dreams vanished. Independence and social life became harder than anyone talks about. Every part of life needed to be relearned or renegotiated.

And still, we were still here.

Still living.

Still deserving of joy, discovery, and growth.

That’s where Adventure With Jonny began.

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 resturant, a movie, a bike ride, a boat ride. Something outside the therapy routine. Something that didn’t require meeting a goal or being evaluated.

Slowly those moments grew, adaptive rock climbing, horseback riding, nature trails, community outings, church small groups, and volunteering. Later: road trips, national parks, a cruise, Alaska, Europe, and this year it was a wheelchair accessible safari in South Africa.

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

It let Jonny learn who he was becoming without pressure.

No tests. No goals. No performance.

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

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

In an unexpected way, adventure became the 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 a disability changes a life the truth is there is incredible limitation. There is real pain. Real loss. Real restructuring of everything familiar.

But there is also something surprising that took us time to see:

Within the limits, there can also be some real freedoms.

When the old structures of school, sports, and work fall away, so do the rigid calendars and seasons. Suddenly we could travel in the off season, take opportunities that popped up in the last minute, learn from experiences instead of textbooks, and explore at our own pace.

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

Adventure can be a lifeline. A classroom. A healing space. A place to discover identity again.

And honestly? Young adults without disabilities often travel for the very same reason to have new experiences and also to understand themselves and their place in the world.

We just found our own version of that path.

Where We’re Heading Next

Will we continue this? For how long? I don’t know. Every season has its own rhythm, and life has a way of restructuring itself.

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 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 speaks to your own journey, please feel free to share in the comments. I really value hearing from you. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the comment section.

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