As I begin to settle into my semester routine, I find it is easy to become complacent and overly regulated. Though I am a self-proclaimed creature of habit (i.e. oatmeal for breakfast every morning, peanut butter sandwich for lunch, etc.), every now and then I like to remind myself that I CAN in fact switch it up, and even more shocking, I often find that I like and appreciate the excitement that surrounds a new experience!

Flashback to last December: my sister and I took an introduction to rock climbing class and we LOVED it…and ten months (and many dollars) later, I am still captivated by the sport. But alas, my sister and beloved climbing partner moved out of state, leaving me to fend for myself in the climbing world!

So I used whole “try something new!” “it will be fun!” speech as outlined at the beginning of this post to convince some nursing friends to give it a try. And we had a BLAST! After a week of long and arduous preparation for midterms, we released all of our pent-up energy and conquered some fears!

It seems that new experiences have the ability to set off a chain reaction! So next time you challenge yourself, encourage others to do the same! You never know where it will lead…