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The majority of thru-hikers have recently graduated or retired.
Nothing is wrong with my life. My family is outstanding.
I’ve been told that taking this trip at this time in my life is irresponsible, a charge I won’t contest.
“If you need to have a midlife crisis, couldn’t you just buy a Corvette?” I
In playing a game, dieting, or hiking the AT, you benefit most when you commit yourself to it, embrace it.
Experience is enriched by reliving it, contemplating it, and trying to describe it to another person.
Thoughts are the most effective weapon in the human arsenal. On the upside, it is powerful to realize that goals are reached primarily by establishing the proper state of mind. But if allowed the perspective that our endeavors are propped upon nothing but a notion, we falter.
Anything that we consider to be an accomplishment takes effort to achieve. If it were easy, it would not be nearly as gratifying. What is hardship at the moment will add to our sense of achievement in the end.
There is no objective importance in walking the range of mountains in the Eastern United States.
If the government is the provider of “free” education, then the government will also decide what is taught and, potentially, how it is used. The fewer responsibilities we have, the less free we are. Communism and democracy differ in this only by a matter of degree. We can vote away freedom as easily as it can be taken away.
This seems to be an attitude worth striving for when I return to work, to perform my job as if I was doing it under my own guidance—as I would want it done myself—not to limit myself to the role of employee, and not to refrain from giving more of myself to the job than is warranted by my pay. It is I who would benefit. Time is most enriching when spent industriously.
Palpable excitement makes my retired friend seem like a schoolboy.
There are no more miles to walk.
We can better relate to the budding aspirations of our children if we follow dreams of our own.
