My Journey on the AT.: Going Home

Good morning!

Yesterday I got outside and walked the circumference of my apartment complex. It was really nice outside yesterday, around 68 degrees F. Today it's down in the 40s but I happen to love winter and its weather so I don't mind one bit! Today I am walking to Target and back. Tomorrow I will going back to the gym and the treadmill. I think I will start my strength training tomorrow also. I enjoy the weight machines in the gym and I feel SO much better when I work out.

I woke up feeling rested and halfway decent this morning! I'm surprised because I normally stumble to the kitchen with one eye open, hit the start button on my Mr Coffee, and grab a diet soda and the ibuprofen right away. I think - no I know - I'm getting in shape. My body is thanking me for doing this. I feel ashamed that I literally layed around for a year and got fat and flabby, not to mention depressed. I'm sure I'd be in a lot better shape all around if I had done this last year but ya know what? I refuse to be sucked down into the mistakes of the past! I'm doing this NOW and I'm taking care of me NOW and that is what I need to keep focusing on.

Some times it just doesn't seem real that I'm going to do this. I look at all the youtube videos on thru-hiking the AT and it's all so beautiful but it's ... surreal. I can see myself at the overlooks and on the trails but only because I used to live practically IN Shenandoah National Park. I know I'll be there again but my it's just like watching a movie on TV...

It's true what they say about not knowing or appreciating what you have until it's gone. I always knew Virginia was a wonderful, beautiful, and historically rich area, but I took a lot for granted too. The Appalachian culture, from which I am descended, is rich and beautiful in its own way. It's a unique way of life that I am so proud of now. I went through life just assuming everyone knew what it meant when I said, "I'd stretch a mile if I didn't have to walk back" and other little things. Some people have never had homemade apple butter or seen a Mennonite buggy. Others have never know what it's like to wake up with the sun blazing over a mountain, a river, or a forest with squirrels scampering thru the trees and across the electric wires. Some have never sat around an open fire roasting hot dogs on sticks and drinking a beer with friends. I took this way of life for granted. I didn't think it was a big part of me. I was wrong. Very very wrong. Hiking the AT is like going home for me. It's in my blood. It's part of my soul.