Chapter 1

"The real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge. That's why questers are so often young, inexperienced, immature, sheltered. Forty-five-year old men either have self-knowledge or they're never gooing to get it, while your average sixteen-to-seventeen-year-old kid is likely to have a long way to go in the self-knowledge department." (Page 3)

This passage sums up the overall idea Foster is trying to state. Generally when you read book you find that the main character is lacking something which generally they gain towards the end of the book. As the title states "Everything Trip is a Quest" brings attention to readers that even a seemingly trivial task can be of utmost importance towards the well rounding of the main character. This is probably overseen all too often, but even in real life people grow from the small triumphs and defeats they may have faced. I remember when I was a tiger scout and I lost the pinewood derby. That is obviously a minuscule tragedy in retrospect, but I did learn a valuable lesson: It's better to lose on your own hard work than to achieve victory on the work of someone else, such as a dad. It may not seem like much but it is truly a lesson that I still remember and cherish to this day, and Foster is saying that small occurances like this one prove to actually be quests where much is discovered or learned. For me, I was the knight, the trophy was the grail, the winner of the race was the evil knight, the chosen path of making my derby car was the dangerous road, and in this quest there was no princess simply because girls had cooties back then. But my personal experience holds nearly all the components that Foster mentions, which is why I, and most people should be able to relate this chapter directly to their own lives.

The one thing however I did question about this chapter is the last sentence of this quote. If 45 year old did not need self knowledge, or would never aquire it, why would they read books about kids that were gaining self knowledge? I think no matter how old and wise you are, you can always grow ontop of who you already are. Other than this off beat sentence the rest was good.