I'm sure you all know that there have been several big changes in my life over the past six months. In May 2014, I graduated from college at the University of Oklahoma. And on the other end of the spectrum, my father passed away in September. Talk about highs and lows, y'all. Since my graduation from OU, I've been taking a "gap year" and still living in Norman, working two part-time jobs. Don't get me wrong, I certainly enjoy both of my jobs, but it's no secret that I've had the desire to branch out into jobs or opportunities linked a little more closely to my college degree of Environmental Sustainability. The issue with this is that I have the tendency to change my mind every couple of weeks on what I want to do with my life and how I want to achieve those goals, so there have been quite a few flip-flops over the past months. I had decided to move back to South Carolina and get my MBA at Clemson University, and then I reconsidered that. I had decided to instead pursue an MBA at the University of North Carolina, and then I reconsidered that. I had decided to move to Oregon in order to try out a completely new location before moving back to South Carolina and settling down, and then I reconsidered THAT. So, without further ado, I present what I have really, actually, 110% decided will be the next step in my life: thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail. This is a task that has been on my bucket list for many years, but I've never spent too much time thinking about actually achieving this goal. After many deep thoughts about life and where mine is going, I came to the conclusion that life is short and the time is now. The logical next step: pack up and move out of Norman, abandon all current obligations and comforts of the modern life, put everything I need to survive in a bag upon my back, and walk 2,189 miles from Georgia to Maine over the course of about six months, from March to September 2015.
Sound crazy? It probably is. Is that going to stop me? Hell, no. It is true that only 1 in 4 people who begin the thru-hike of the AT make it all the way to the other end (and women are less than a quarter of all people who have completed it), but I will absolutely be doing everything in my power to reach Mount Katahdin. I have no doubt that this journey will be the most physically and mentally challenging thing I have ever attempted, but that's why I want to do it. I want to undertake a task that few people have even tried to achieve and even fewer have actually accomplished. If I make it all the way to Maine, then that will be a bigger reward than anything the material world could provide me with. I'm sure there will be more ups and downs than I could even imagine, but I have never been more excited about anything else that I have decided to do in my life. So here's to the journey. Let's see where it takes me!
