We raised $11,124 dollars! Congratulations! Half will benefit JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) and half will benefit the Baystate Pediatric Endocrinology Group (our highest donors) in Springfield, MA. Thank you so much to everybody who took part. All donations of over $50 will receive a receipt in the mail before the end of summer.
I have a new blog! It’s through the MIT admissions website, and I will likely keep blogging there until I graduate in 2013. I simply write about my thoughts and experiences… hopefully it’s interesting enough! Bookmark my new homepage if you want to read: http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/author/gabe
I just returned from Snowbird, Utah. I was extremely fortunate to attend ‘Horizons’ – a weeklong leadership training workshop facilitated by my fraternity, Sigma Chi. One evening, we visited the summit of Snowbird Mountain. I felt my first strong tug back to trail-life that night. The sun dropped below the 11,000 foot rocky outcrops extending up from the opposite side of the valley as if yearning to touch outer space. I teared up as blue surrendered to darkness, as the sun fell and the moon rose. Before tucking into my overly comfy queen hotel bed that night, I called Dr. Bundy.
We spoke for almost an hour. He’s back in rural Mississippi, still thrilled to be back to his beautiful girlfriend, his family and his friends. He’s anxiously anticipating the start of medical school in under a month. But we both agreed, life is not the same since our hike. It’s good to be back in ‘real’ life, but I miss the Trail. I miss the strange combination of a strong goal (Katahdin) with a super relaxed pace of life. I miss the people, both close friends like Dr. Bundy, WhiteFang and Renaissance, and random acquaintances (Kitchen Sink types). I especially miss the simplicity.
My three main takeaways from this experience?
1) Materials and money do not equal happiness
So long as you have a certain amount of each, you don’t need more. Give it away. Living out of a 38-liter backpack taught me exactly what I need and what I don’t.
2) Experiences are best shared
Except for certain reflective outings, I want the people in my life who I care about to share future experiences and adventures with me. Enough is enough with time alone, and hiking all of June void of companionship showed me that.
3) Hike your own hike, and enjoy it
That’s what Hot Rock (the shuttler who whisked me to the AT in Georgia) told me. And he was right. Perhaps this is part of any young man’s coming of age, but I started to trust my own judgment while making decisions on the Trail.
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So that’s it. That’s all. I will forever be an AT thru-hiker. I’ll never forget my encounters with bears, moose and falling trees. I’ll always hold the memories with Dr. Bundy, WhiteFang, Renaissance and Gadget close to my heart. I will endeavor never to forget of the misery of frozen socks, sore knees and buggy swamps. This last one will be hard, because I already look back and laugh. It wasn’t so bad, I tell myself. Even in the moments of misery, I knew I’d come to feel this way. But man, was I miserable. The journey was hard, and very long. But I recommend it to anyone who seeks to experience the Appalachian mountains, challenge themselves, and meet the coolest people in the world at the pace life should be: Two miles per hour.
Over & Out,
-3Stove
