I sat at Harpers Ferry out of Bolívar Bakery with Mr. Cheese today to chat. We drank our coffee and ice tea with our Pepperoni rolls and discussed their decision to go to school in the face of their desire to finish the path, and the ways in which we feel lost and found in life.
Cheese and I met in Hot Springs, North Carolina, and we have been walking next to others since then. Due to different sleep schedules, we don’t really spend most of our hiking days together, but we bite it very well in cities and shelters. Mr. Cheese is the one who coined the phrase «The walk is getting in the way», which can definitely be true when hiking is exhausting and hanging in the shelters is relaxing and fun.
After the last weeks on our own, Cheese and I have finally met with Gaslight, we have left Virginia and we have reached Harper’s Ferry, the psychological point halfway from the path of the path. For me, the goal of the path has changed completely, and I had the opportunity to express my new perspective in a conversation with a man in the ATC. When I started the path, I had read a couple of books from men who saw the path as something to achieve, something to conquer even what required the mental strength to fight the difficulties, stay ongoing and strive to your mental and emotional limits. They made the path seem an insurmountable challenge, something that would change his life by showing him that he can do difficult things if he only occurs.
Instead, what I have found is a community of friends and an adventure every day. It is fun, it is a life in life, and in fact it changes life, but not for difficulties, due to the recognition that life can be more than a career in a city or a home in a suburb (cheese began to take the sofa when you read this line while editing its interview).
I do not believe for myself «do not give up on a difficult day, think about how terrible you will feel if you do not finish this goal,» I think for myself «I don’t want to quit smoking, this is an adventure that I don’t want to stop.» On the way, it has a constant sense of purpose, a constant current of conversation with new friends, vitamin D, exercise and mental rest when water flows every day. It is literally the suggested list of activities for people fighting with mental health in life in the densely populated city. (Note: Of course, there are difficult days, especially now that it is summer: heat and insects make some days absolutely miserable. In general, for me, it is still fun and is worth it).
The cheese has been flooded particularly for biting insects lately, but still finds time to enjoy small things like berries in the season along the path and great insects without biting like the moon moths.
So what does people out of the way when they enjoy their lives here? When don’t you really want to quit smoking? Sometimes it is a job offer, sometimes it is the death of a family member … Sometimes it is the school that begins in August.
Let’s start the interview.
The interview
TG: Cheese, why did you start the path?
MC: Why? …
*MC plays with an ant on the ground*
MC: I’m sorry, I’m playing with an ant, what was the question?
We may have been tired of the lack of good dream due to the snoring in the shelter last night.
TG: Let’s start again. Why did you choose to walk through the AT?
MC: I had many things for me that they did not go anywhere, so I realized that the best way to find my way was to go to a completely new one.
TG: So it was not a call towards the AT as much as trying something new to see what happened?
MC: That is exactly correct.
TG: What did you expect to find here on the way?
MC: I came here to find respect for me, to connect with my love for nature, to meet people who would never find outside the path, and do something I never dreamed of doing. Until now, I succeed in most counts.
TG: Do you feel that you have found what you are looking for?
MC: I think I picked up the aroma, and began to move in the right direction. I can say that I am moving in the right direction because I am still moving in that direction. Usually, when I try something new, I give up before it leakes.
TG: Before you are percolated?
MC: Yes, before something has had the opportunity to have an impact on my life. So, the fact that I am still here implies that something is happening.
TG: In good sense?
MC: I would not say in good sense. It’s like electronic vapos. There could be long -term effects that we do not know, like other other cancer, but in the meantime it feels so good and makes me look like a boss. As electronic vapos.
TG: I have it. What long -term effects are you afraid of the path?
MC: I’m afraid that this could be my beak, and once I upload it, I will never stop going down.
TG: Are you afraid that nothing is up to this later?
MC: Nothing in truth or in memory, I suspect. This is one of those incredible experiences that feels like one of the most great things a person can do. The more interesting you do in life, the more difficult it is to be up to that for the rest of your life. I am always going up the bet, always warming things.
TG: So why are your plans after the path, 1-5 years outside?
MC: Well, I don’t know if I can answer that right now. Not for confidentiality but by perpetual confusion. But if I had to take a hopeful assumption, I will be doing something I love.
TG: Are you not so sure of the Law Faculty after the path?
MC: Vaccilia every day, I still change their minds. I think it would take me, anyone, an incredible amount of willpower to give up a dream, something that I love, for a possibility of long -term success. I will eventually decide, I’m sure.
(For the context, the cheese has been accepted in the Law Faculty with a complete scholarship, but it begins in August and will not be able to finish the path if you commit to school. We have had many conversations about what would be the best option: finish the path or go to school).
TG: What has been your most difficult day on the road?
MC: I feel that I have gone through a shit from which I have become stronger. I used to say that it was a day in the tiles where a group fell and broke a trekking post … but now it feels like the physical pain of the day to day I am accustomed. Now the challenges are more mental.
TG: Do you have a memory of favorite paths?
MC: Playing cards on the entrance road to four pins, while Fail was among its last release and its next place. Sounds silly, but it reminds me that being there for each other is the most important.
TG: What is your favorite part of the AT experience?
MC: It is really interesting how seriously we take it, and we have a mutual understanding and tacit rules that we are all discovering, and we are not unique because many hundreds of thousands of thousands have gone before us on this path, and it seems that we are being induced in a new class or something. Community support has been incredible.
The cheese stops to choose a black raspberry from a bush next to us.
MC: The berries are also good.
Mr Cheese and I applaud our ice cream in the media gallon challenge.
TG: What is your least favorite part of the walk?
MC: Insects stink. But really that the path seems inaccessible to so many people who would benefit. And that the lifestyle of the path is unsustainable even with all the support of the community and the magic of the path, it can be a lot to do this.
Fast fire questions
Favorite paths: pretzels with a different flavor, I put them all in the same bag so that the taste changes every week.
Favorite time to walk: just before lunchtime.
DND class: bard.
Role in the robbery: Matt Damon
Favorite hostel on the path: Woodshole
Favorite section of the path until now: Southern Pennsylvania: The long flat path full of large trees and blueberry bushes has been quite good.
Final question
What is the meaning of life?
42.
