Adventure and fun are the key to a fun life says Jasper

Hello Boys and Girls,

How are you all this week? Delighted to be back at school I’m sure.

The winds were so high for a while there that I kept having dreams that woke me up. I was dreaming I was back at sea and caught in a terrible storm. Then I’d wake up with a fright and hear the wind howling in the trees and start thinking about my adventures at sea.

When I was young I wanted to see the world. My Daddy would get the National Geographic magazine and he loved to read to us the stories about people and places from all over the world. How I longed to get out and see some of these great sights for myself.

So when I was 18 I asked my parents if I could join the navy. I told them I really wanted to sail the seven seas and have all sorts of adventures. After some persuasion, they agreed and an uncle of mine who was a ship’s captain got me a job as a trainee sailor on a ship out of Liverpool in England.

I loved seafaring

Well I loved it from day one. Even before we put out to sea and all I was doing was mopping the decks. There were several older sailors who loved to tell yarns about their travels.

I thought some were very tall tales indeed and didn’t believe half of them. That was before I had been shipwrecked a few times, chased by cannibals, helped recover the lost treasure of the Princess of Siam and sailed thought some of the most treacherous waters in the world.

I’m sure I’ve told you about some of my adventures. Aunt Molly says everybody knows my sea stories off by heart at this stage. I don’t care. They were great days and I’d love to be back at sea again, for a little while at least.

 

Make your own adventures

The one important thing I learned is that you can’t just sit around waiting for adventure to pop up or watching other people’s adventures on TV. You have to go out and make your very own.

Then when you start on an adventure, lots more seem to come out of the woodwork.

You don’t have to go to sea to have adventures. You can have them with your friends in school. Playing on a team with all your pals can become an adventure. Building a tree house can be to.

Learning to swim or sail a boat. How about investigating all the wildlife in your area. Are there foxes or badgers, rare birds or big fish in the lakes? There are any number of little adventures you can have — as long as you play safe. No wandering off looking for treasure in the bogs — although here is plenty down there. No swimming alone or anything like that.

A fireman or a flying doctor

Once you get into the habit of having adventures they keep coming. That’s the great thing about adventures. And then when you get bigger you’ll be in the adventure habit. You might go surfing, or mountain climbing, or canoeing on the rivers with a club.

Then you might decide you like adventure so much that you’ll join the army, or the Gardai, or the Fire Service. You could become a vet in Africa or a flying doctor in Australia. Then you can have many more adventures. The possibilities are endless.

The world is a wonderful place, boys and girls. There are adventures to be had, new places to see, new friends to meet. Just make sure you enjoy it and have lots and lots of fun. That’s the message from your Uncle Jasper this week.

Bye for now,

Uncle Jasper.