First Place: Greatest Guy in the World. Second place: never heard of him.

Lately I’ve been reading Life Magazine’s Greatest Adventures of all time. It’s packed with story after story of epic adventures. Some of the stories are about a specific adventurer’s life of adventure (like Jacques Cousteau) but a lot of the stories are about “Firsts.” There’s the story of the First trip to the North Pole, First Trip to the South Pole, First trip to the Marianas Trench (deepest part of the ocean), First ascent on Everest.

In reading these short stories of famous adventurers, I’ve been thinking...how cool would it be to be the First to do....something? I don’t know what yet.

What is there left to do? The highest mountain has been climbed; the deepest part of the ocean has been reached. Man has flown around the globe; man has gone into space; man has walked on the moon!

Last summer we were hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. We came to a remote lake, miles from any road or building. I thought to myself, “Wow, I’m in the middle of NOWHERE. I wonder how many people have ever even been here!” Then I saw a plaque on a rock.

A few weeks later, some of us climbed the mountain in the backyard of the Training Ground house. It was a really tough climb. Once we got to the top we were exhausted and felt like we had truly accomplished something. I thought there was NO WAY that we’d ever see another person while on top of this mountain, and THEN we met a nice couple from Tennessee that had hiked up the rather easy trail on the other side.

I’m sure there’s something that I could do, I just don’t think that I’m creative enough to think of it. Even if I was, I don’t think I’m passionate enough or enough of a risk taker to go for it.

There’s a guy right now (Jeb Corliss) who has been training to jump out of a plane and land without using a parachute...I don’t think I’m up for that challenge.

It seems like everything I could think of to be the first at is going to be extremely dangerous. But I guess that’s the point right? People are going to think you’re crazy...until you come back a success.

I guess we can’t all be Neil Armstrong.