My parents were farm kids and their parents were pioneers. First gen pioneers have a sense of adventure we don’t really understand today.

When we feel adventuresome now what we really mean is go to the zoo with the family or on a hike, while their adventures looked like work mixed with survival with the cost of failure much more than “not having fun”.

My parents moved our family from a small farming town in Alberta to LA in 1981. THAT was an adventure!

No computers, Wifi, fax machines, or cell phones and we drove off in a Honda Civic that had no air conditioning. We had no guarantees and no safety net. They just knew that comfort and predictability were more of a danger to the destiny of their family than an adventure was.

They left a new house and stable jobs behind them. They left both sides of their family. They got out of Dodge and never looked back. And all these years later I’m glad they did.

The sense of adventure and accomplishment they must feel as they look back only comes from climbing mountains few people climb, or walking painful paths and discovering themselves along the way, or not knowing where today’s supply was going to come from but getting out of bed in the morning anyways. These are the building blocks of the pioneering stock: a mix of good humour and stubborn defiance of the status quo.

Just over a year ago I asked our launch team to move to Airdrie to help us start Venue, and most of them did, not because they didn’t have families and houses and jobs, but because it was one of those things we knew we’d regret forever if we didn’t do it when we had the chance.

Only now do I realize what they all must have back then, that no one actually does that sort of thing anymore. Honestly looking back it never occurred to me that it was that big of a deal because I was taught at a young age to put the most important things in front and live your life around them. I’ve never regretted that.

Did every single one of us wake up in the middle of the night and wonder what the heck we just did? Often. Was it a struggle finding new jobs and new homes? Yes. Was it hard that our kids had to go to new schools and make new friends? Absolutely.

But it was all worth it. A hundred times over.

I don’t know what you value most in life, but I hope you value something worth the ultimate adventure. I’d love to spark some courage even if you think your ship has sailed, because I doubt that it has yet.

Now my parents are moving here too. They currently live north of here in a beautiful house they’d always intended to retire in. It’s a perfect house on perfect property and dad built it himself. It’s the home I grew up in and their grandkids spend sleepovers at. It’s where mom’s kitchen is and dad’s garage. It’s our family home.

They sold it last week and want to follow me here for an adventure, and I know it won’t be their last adventure either. Why? I don’t really know if we put those sorts of things into words, other than they figured the vision was worth the risk, and why not move closer to their granddaughters so rudely moved out of town on them!:) Then they can watch basketball games and take them to school when we travel?

Some grandparents these days are more self centred, but we’re lucky with them because they don’t really think about themselves all that much. I did ask them to move, not because I’m selfish or some sort of ego maniac, but because I thought it would be an adventure!

It’s their own fault really… they asked me to move from LA when I was 8 and leave my school and all my friends, and it was hard.

But we do hard things in our family. They’re called adventures…