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Countdown time…
It’s April 15th, which means that it is close enough to important things happening in my life to list a countdown to them because I am way too excited for some of them…
Last day of student teaching - 24 days
Graduation - 27 days
Beach with Jon - 34 days
UL Training officially starts - 43 days
Staff Training officially starts - 49 days
Jon’s 21st Birthday/Bill’s Graduation - 52 days
First day of campers - 63 days
DMB Weekend - 89 days
My 22nd Birthday - 102 days
Last Day of Camp - 111 days
Real life begins - 112 days
After 112 days from now, I have no idea where I am going to be or what I am going to be doing.
Thank goodness I have a lot of amazing distractions in between.
From Georgia to Maine…
It’s almost impossible to describe how badly I want to hike the entirety of the Appalachian Trail someday. I spend hours watching videos and looking at pictures of others’ adventures on the trail, and I am insanely jealous of those who saw those places with their own eyes. The views along the trail are absolutely beautiful, and speaking from a brief experience, I can say that the disconnect from the real world and the raw feeling of just being alone in God’s creation is truly incredible.
Jon and I spent a few days of our spring break last year hiking through the Smokies on the Appalachian Trail, and looking back at it I can remember it to have been one of the most invigorating experiences of my life. We put ourselves 11 miles up and down mountains (one of them the tallest peak on the entire trail) and away from anything near civilization. We carried everything we hoped we would need (and many things that we really didn’t need) on our backs and trekked an exhausting 6 hours from the trail entrance to our shelter. By the time we had reached the Double Spring Gap shelter, night had surrounded us and been around us for at least an hour. Hiking along an unfamiliar trail for an unknown remaining distance in almost entire darkness (except for our headlamps) was by far one of the scariest moments of my life. Even more frightening was the cold that surrounded us. Although it was spring break and we were along the Tennessee/North Carolina border, it was nearly 20 degrees by nightfall and the mountaintop that we were hiking along was covered in snow. We were freezing when we found our shelter, and had it not been for the fire that the thru-hikers at that site that night built, I don’t think we would have made it through the night without experiencing moderate hypothermia. We were cold, wet, hungry, lacking warm food or drink, nearing dehydration, and absolutely exhausted. I had never felt so close to dying, and packing a 40 degree sleeping bag was probably one of the worst possible things that I could have done. And although this experience sounds absolutely miserable, I look back on it as one of the moments in my life that I would actually want to go back and experience. At that moment, I was completely raw, stripped-down, bare, and reliant on myself and Jon to get through the night. I have never felt so real, so in touch with who I am, and so alive. It was incredible.
I know it sounds crazy, but I would do anything to get back on the trail to do the same thing every night for months at a time. Granted, I plan on being far more prepared, trained, and equipped to handle such a journey. The feeling I get when I look at pictures from this footpath is impossible to explain. It is a longing for that feeling of disconnect. It is a need to be broken down to the most basic parts of me. It is a hunger to be surrounded by simple beauty at its finest. I have made it my goal to hike the entirety of the trail from Georgia to Maine before I die. I don’t know if I will thru hike, flip flop, section hike, or tackle 10 miles at a time on day hikes until I complete it, but it will happen. I want to feel like life is all that I have and take advantage of the opportunity to celebrate it, enjoy it, adventure through it, and take in all of it that I can. Take me to the trail, please….
I will hike this in its entirety someday. Blog to come shortly about this…
(Source: pattersonic, via appalachiantrailporn)
(via staywastingtime)
Winter on the Appalachian Trail, Great Smokey Mountains, Tennessee.
i distinctly remember hiking this part in this weather. It was by far one of the most breathtaking and invigorating moments of my life. It is impossible to explain how badly I want to be back there right now.
I’m kinda liking this growing up deal…
I never thought that I would actually say that.
I absolutely LOVE student teaching, though it is leaving me completely sleep deprived and exhausted. I’m quickly realizing that you can only have two of the following three things: enough sleep, a social life in your last semester of college, or a successful student teaching experience. So far, I’ve been lacking sleep. But I guess that is what makes a grown up right?
I’m becoming to welcome the idea of growing up and finally making something of my life on my own. It is so frightening, but this whole semester is really showing me that I can do this.
I’ll be honest though - the one thing that I’m really looking forward to is getting a golden retriever puppy and naming him/her Max. When I have Max, that means that I have money to support Max. When I have Max, that means that I have my own place for Max to live in. When I get my Max, that means that I probably have someone else to watch over him/her too and be his/her best friend with me. Max means that my life is finally turning to grown up mode.
I have never wanted Max to be a part of my life before as much as I have lately.
Submitted by whoarebeckynow.
"We are the girls with anxiety disorders, filled appointment books, five-year plans. We take ourselves very, very seriously. We are the peacemakers, the do-gooders, the givers, the savers. We are on time, overly prepared, well read, and witty, intellectually curious, always moving…We pride ourselves on getting as little sleep as possible and thrive on self-deprivation. We drink coffee, a lot of it. We are on birth control, Prozac, and multivitamins…We are relentless, judgmental with ourselves, and forgiving to others. We never want to be as passive-aggressive are our mothers, never want to marry men as uninspired as our fathers…We are the daughters of the feminists who said “You can be anything” and we heard “You have to be everything."
Courtney Martin Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters (via dontstopthefrizz)
(Source: adaptationorretribution, via mysleeplessreply)
