An Expedition as a Metaphor for Life
- Peter Fletcher
- Mar 10
- 5 min read
Ever wonder why excitement and fear feel so similar? It's because they both trigger our "fight or flight" response—heart pounding, adrenaline pumping, the works.
The key difference lies in the label our minds put on the physiological sensations.
Bass Strait Kayak for Kids
I'm looking down the barrel of one the most exciting trips of my life; taking my eldest (15-year-old) daughter, together with my great mate Marcus Wickham, and his (effectively) stepdaughter across Bass Strait by sea kayak, in support of Variety Tasmania.
It's ambitious and incredibly exciting (or is that scary as hell?)
Insights into our emotions often come and go, but every now and again a sentence or two will stay with us, perhaps forever, and help to frame our next adventure. It was Aristotle who said that “happiness is self-sufficiency, which is not about being alone or shutting off from the world, but about being complete, self-contained and independent of external factors for happiness.”
Imagine…
Freedom – being the captain your ship and master of your destiny!
Self-sufficiency – paddling to and from small islands in the middle of the vast ocean, fishing, cooking, and camping.
Flow – speeding along in kayaks, sails catching the wind, spray hitting faces, demanding full focus to keep the boats upright.
Flexibility – analyzing forecasts, predictions and no end of data but, in the end, knowing that mother nature has the final word.
Connection – sharing moments of quiet awe, laughter, and shared accomplishment, forging bonds that will last a lifetime.
A Metaphor for Life
I find that an expedition can serve as a powerful metaphor for life.
You create a vision, build a close team around you, gather resources, and set out on a quest. It's an emotional rollercoaster, much like life, and you emerge having achieved your goal—or not.
Either way, you're generally much better for the experience because a challenging and purposeful journey strips away the distractions of modern life and brings what truly matters into sharper focus.
You witness the strength of human connection, not just in the bonds between your team, but in the shared vulnerability and mutual support that arises when facing challenges together. You find purpose in the shared endeavor, in pushing limits and discovering what you’re truly capable of.
Growth becomes tangible; each challenge overcome, each skill honed, marks a step forward in our personal journeys. Resilience isn’t just a concept; it’s the very act of paddling through rough seas, of setting up camp in the face of exhaustion, of finding strength when we thought we had none left.
We learn to appreciate the simple joys: the warmth of the sun, the taste of a well-earned meal, the camaraderie of shared experience.
And in the solitude of the open water, we find space for introspection, for authentic self-expression, for stripping away the layers of pretence and connecting with our true selves.
This journey isn’t just about reaching a destination; it’s about seeing these fundamental truths in a new, profound light, and giving us the chance to live them more fully.
The Challenges and Rewards
No doubt we need calm weather days to get across safely, and no doubt there will be any number of challenges:
Early starts, long days
Eating when you don't feel like eating
Paddling up to 12 hours on end
Setting up camp at the end of a long day
Peeing in a bottle/Tupperware box
Being hangry Missing loved ones
Fear of the known—the ocean, the waves, weather changes, wildlife, etc.
Fear of the unknown!
But these challenges are what help to make a trip like this because, as in life, without shade there is no real light.
The Heart of the Journey
There can often be blurred lines between excitement and fear because both involve an element of uncertainty!
My biggest fear is an un-forecast change in the weather. While forecasts are generally accurate, the risk remains, especially with the girls onboard. Yet, the inherent joys of being out in nature with loved ones, away from the day-to-day demands of the modern world, outweigh the fears.
Everything we experience, everything we learn as adults on trips, is magnified 3, 5, or 10x for young people. It's easy to think the subtleties of having to deal with fear (excitement), of having to push on when your body and mind are saying you have nothing left, of appreciating the simple things in life (food, water, being horizontal in your sleeping bag at the end of a long day) are lost on young people. They're not!
It's easy to think that young people are too young, too naive, or incapable of dealing with these things. They're not!
I've seen young people do amazing things. One of my fondest memories was climbing Mt. Meru, the third-highest mountain in Africa, with a group of 15-year-old girls (admittedly with a great band of local guides and porters). On the summit day, the girls endured sideways rain, cold, and walking on little to no sleep the night before. They were so slow that we had to have a serious talk about turning around. They were told that no one would think less of them, that they still would have achieved a lot, but no, they insisted on persevering and they picked up the pace. Many of the girls struggled that day, but they kept going, walking up for some 10 hours from around midnight to 10 a.m. (after three days of walking before). I was with the final girl, and as we came up onto the summit, every person in the group (girls, guides, porters, and cooks) started singing the well-known song "Lean on Me."
It was spine-tinglingly wonderful. It helped that these girls were from a choir school, and they could sing! But it was also an outward expression of the joy, relief, and sense of achievement they felt. They'd achieved the hardest thing they'd ever done in their lives to that point, something they didn't think they'd be able to achieve, but, because they did, they now felt invincible. That's how you develop resilience, that's how you engender self-belief.
My daughter and I have a unique bond. When she and her sisters were young, we always told them three things: to be kind, to be brave, and to be themselves. She embodies all of these qualities, but she also shares my stubbornness. This can be a huge benefit, but it also means we lock horns from time to time. I remind myself to let her be right sometimes or to learn from her mistakes. If it’s not mission-critical, this will be my mantra.
Lessons for Life and Learning
Resilience is defined as "the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties." I learned on the North Atlantic that it’s much easier for us (young people and adults) to be resilient when we don't have a choice. Stop paddling a long way from land, and you're adrift in the ocean. Human beings can go further and longer than they often think is possible, but sometimes we must remove the "out" to realize it.
Young people dream big. They aspire to play for national sports teams, to become lawyers, doctors, firefighters, to cure diseases, to work in the UN. These dreams aren't easy. They require overcoming setbacks, facing challenges, and persevering through tough conditions. They demand doing more than you've done before, more than you were capable of yesterday. This is what an expedition teaches you. This is what gives young people hope and anticipation for the future.
If you are a teacher and would like to organize an expedition for your school, please reach out to support@myworldchallenge.com or contact me personally.
If you’d like to follow our journey please do so at: https://share.garmin.com/BassStraitKayak4Kids
To support Variety Tasmania please go to:
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