Strange Lands and Inner Landscapes: How Adventure Shapes Who We Become

“What are you smoking?!”

That was the college president’s response when I first proposed a budget to take instructors on a sea kayaking expedition to Baja, Mexico. It wasn’t a vacation, however. My idea was for a carefully crafted, immersive course in experiential, place-based learning. His reaction? Entirely fair.

I’ve always been taught to give ideas the front-page headline test. How would this look splashed across tomorrow’s paper? I could already see it. But our college had just committed to an ambitious new direction. Incremental steps wouldn’t get us there. We needed bold, disorienting, radical ideas.

And radical ideas? Well, that happens to be one of my specialties.

Thankfully, I made a compelling enough case that skepticism turned into support. That initial trip turned into three. And I continue to offer these learning expeditions.

That college president eventually stood beside me at a national conference, declaring Paddles & Pedagogy the highest return on investment of his presidency.

So what made these “strange lands” experiences so powerful?

Beyond the sun and the saltwater, the jolt of dislocation, being out of place, invites us to question everything we thought we knew.

In my book Educative Encounters, I write about the value of leaving the familiar - whether geographically, emotionally, or pedagogically. For participants, stepping into a foreign place pushed them out of their comfort zones and directly into their learning zones. Instructors who were used to being the experts had to ask for directions, navigate unfamiliar waters, and sit in the discomfort of not knowing.

And that’s exactly the point.

As educators and leaders, we grow not by staying where it's safe, but by venturing into the unknown - what I call “strange lands.” These can be literal places or small acts of disruption: teaching in a new space, changing the rhythm of a meeting, or sitting quietly with mystery instead of rushing to answers.

For these Baja trips, strange lands offers three things:

• Discomfort that opens the door to new learning

• Empathy through lived experience of the unfamiliar

• Creative insights from making the strange familiar and the familiar strange

  
  

It was about paddling & perspective!

One instructor later told me the experience shifted the way she related to her international students - students who had themselves crossed oceans, languages, and customs to come learn. It’s one thing to teach about intercultural development; it’s another to feel the disorientation of being the outsider.

You don’t always need a plane ticket to enter a strange land.

Sometimes it’s a new question. A different way of listening. A willingness to shake up your routine.

Robin Williams’ character in Dead Poets Society stood on desks and held class in the hallways because shifting the frame shifts the learning. I’ve done the same: holding lessons in community root cellars, parking lots, even the admin office lobby. When we disrupt the expected, we make room for growth.

If this speaks to you - if you're someone who wants to teach, lead, or live with more curiosity, courage, and care - Educative Encounters was written for you.

Grab your copy here and let the adventure begin.

Or better yet, join me on one of our AdvenEd Learning Expeditions.

Let’s go beyond the known - together.