Most people think of the word "adventure" as a noun -- a single experience that has a beginning, middle and end.
But Chelsea Yamase often uses it as a verb, which says a lot about the 26-year-old and her motivation to squeeze every second of action, joy and appreciation out of life.
"Adventuring gives me this incredible fulfillment," she recently told The Huffington Post from her home on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. "It's empowering for me to know that I can achieve things and accomplish things with my own two feet."
Yamase is something of an Instagram celebrity with over 76,000 followers. She works as a freelance graphic artist, but also gets calls from photographers, marketing companies and retailers who are inspired by her active lifestyle and want to work with someone who can sky dive, free dive, camp or hike with ease -- things you can't just hire a model or actress to do.
Her uncompromising love for the outdoors, she says, has forced her to "create a different kind of work model that doesn't require being chained to a desk. I try to find people who see it as an asset that I do other things."
As a result, she has the life she wants and the luxury of being able to say what few of us can: "If I was a millionaire," she told HuffPost, "I would not change the way I live at all."
The lush landscapes of Kauai, Yamase admits, provide a gorgeous background, but she also insists that "Every single place has something beautiful, something worth exploring. Whether you're in Hawaii or Minnesota, there's always places to see."
Adventuring and exploring, she says, teaches you to be "more flexible and curious, and to be mindful of how beautiful the Earth is."
But the best part, she says, is learning "how little you really need to be happy."
"I'm not the best at anything, I'm not a professional anything. I just love what I get to do and that resonates with people. The message there is that anybody can do it. Just get out there."
Our weekend plans just got a makeover, and they're definitely more extreme.
