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More Than Just The Sydney Bridge Climb
By admin | March 19, 2007
Several years ago I spent a month in Sydney, Australia tagging along with a collegiate ministry there that is doing some tremendous things. It was a phenomenal experience on so many different levels and one of the very cool pieces was just spending time in that great city. Now I readily admit that I am not a world traveler, but of all the cities I have visited Sydney might be my favorite. It was absolutely stunning.
One of the fun things was to visit sites I see on TV or movies in person. For some reason doing this in a major international city was extremely cool. I saw the Opera House, and much more.
One option I had was to cross the Sydney Bridge up top, which would give a bird’s eye view of the whole city. The only problem, it was expensive. Even with a great exchange rate at the time (2:1) it was still really expensive, to me anyway.
I just read a post of someone who recently made the Sydney Bridge Climb and it has caused me to ask some questions about myself.
You see I am what some my call “cheap.” That word is never used in a good way, why is that? So I only go to the movies about once a year, I order water at meals, on and on.
But I wonder how much I miss out on because I’m cheap. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to start just throwing my money away by going to movies every night or whatever. But how many truly “once in a lifetime” sorts of experiences do I miss out on?
As I read the post I remembered what I tell people. The bridge climb was really expensive so I thought I could just see the bridge from below instead. But I’ll never get to remember what it was like to fearfully make my way across the bridge with the ability to look across the whole city to take in the spectacular views.
I’m trying to enjoy the simple things in life a bit more this year. And in doing so I’m having to release some jack.
So the boys and I are going to watch the Royals play the Red Sox. What experiences would I miss out on with my boys at that game if I decided it was too expensive? What crazy things would I miss if I chose not to go? What silly things will Carter do that I would never have gotten to see? What ridicularity would I miss as we brave the traffic out of there?
I don’t know. Maybe it will just be a day like any other. But I have a hutch it will be something we’ll talk about all summer long.
March 19th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
i like that you’re tossing around this idea. I know how you feel. Especially in Orange County, where almost everything is super expensive, it’s hard not to be frugal. I often wonder what awesome experiences are happening around me that I’m missing. Usually, I try to capitalize on random opportunities, but do often allow cost to sway me. I constantly have this fear that inexpensive, really fun opportunities are happening all around, but I simply don’t know about them.