If you asked my grandma, she’d probably tell you that I’ve had a lot of bad ideas in my life. But then again, her idea of a bad idea is probably everything that includes leaving the house, so I wouldn’t take her answer too seriously.

If you asked my father, he’d probably be able to point out a few bad ideas I’ve had, some of them actually being bad for logical reasons.

And if you asked me… I don’t know what I’d say. I’ve had ideas, I went through with them, but I never thought about if they were good or bad until after I tried and saw the result.

But as I got older, I started to think in advance — meaning, I come up with an idea, and before executing it, I try and assess if it’s a bad idea. Although I must admit that the process looks like this:

• Me: “Is this idea a bad idea?”
• Me: “Hmmm… it does seem to be something that could be generally described as a bad idea.”
• Me: “How bad tho?”
• Me: “85%-of-people-would-say-it’s-a-bad-idea level bad.”
• Me:
• Me:
• Me:
• Me: “Let’s do it anyway.”
• Me: “Yeeeeeees!”

You see, I do try to be critical, I do put some thought in it! Oh dear. Okay. Moving on.

A lot of my “bad ideas” seem really bad to other people before I execute them (the ideas, of course), and probably me, too, once I do go through with them. But if there’s one thing I learned from going through with most of my “bad ideas,” it’s this. Even though they do seem like the stupidest things I’ve ever decided to do while doing them, about 97% of them turn out to have way too much good impact on me and my life to be really considered bad ideas.

Below is a list of a very few of my “bad ideas” (in no particular order). Some of them I went through with already. Some of them are waiting to be put to the test. (Or to put me through a test?) Some of them sound so idiotic that I haven’t even told my friends about, let alone my family (we don’t wanna give grandma a heart attack, right?)

1. Hiking in Yosemite (namely to Glacier Point via Panorama Trail) on the hottest day of summer, in no physical condition to do so, and with zero experience.
   • Turned out great, I made it, although it was quite painful, and I made a friend along the way who bought me an ice cream on Glacier Point. Also learned that my body can do more than I think, which became a crucial piece of information in my life. (Link)
2. Running a hundred miles
   • Training for that craziness right now. The idea came about 2 years ago, and was enforced by one of my closest friends about a year ago, and so here I am. One of the things I haven’t told my family.
3. Moving to a whole different continent.
   • My grandma couldn’t get over this. But hey, it’s been 4 years now and all good. So many lessons I’ve learned, so many friends I’ve made!
4. Eating too much banana cake
   • Okay, this one was just a mistake. Moving on.
5. Taking my old unreliable car on a road trip.
   • Well, it survived one road trip the summer before that, so I thought it was gonna be ok. Got stuck in the middle of nowhere in Oregon, but it was great experience — got towed by an old man who bought me tacos afterwards and made friends with the guys in the repair shop. Swam in a beautiful river I wouldn’t have discovered if it weren’t for the broken car, and learned so much along the way! (Story)
6. Running across the whole of Japan from North to South.
   • Yeah, this one is in the beginning phases of planning. It’s probably one of the most daring, idiotic, “unrealistic” ideas I’ve ever had. But trying to figure out the logistics of it (quite the task) is already nerve wrecking — and awesome!
7. Make living as a writer.
   • So far, I’ve had only rejection emails, and this blog that I’ve been writing for some three years now isn’t getting nearly enough traffic for me to be able to make anything off it. But hey, let’s keep trying I guess. If I give up, I’m definitely not going to achieve this, so I just have to keep trying — that way there’s still some chance I can just make it.
8. Hiking to Hidden Lake up above Logan Pass through a snowfield in a whiteout with tennis shoes with ZERO traction.
   • Sounds pretty idiotic right. Well, I made it there, made it back, and it was quite the adventure! I even made some friends (the only other people crazy enough to be up on the mountain in those conditions) and we had fun together the entire way down. (Story)

What I’m trying to get to I guess is that even though, yes, there might be some truly bad ideas out there, not all ideas you have that you or your surrounding might consider to be bad are really bad. Sometimes, they’re just unusual, uncomfortable, and awesome.