The Lists

Here are the preparatory lists that Zach Davis suggests in his book Appalachian Trials and my answers:

“I am thru-Hiking the Appalachian Trail because…”:

1. I want to push myself to achieve something, and be able to feel what it feels like to succeed.
2. I want to open myself wider than I’ve been able to do before: to beauty, to spirit, to a deeper understanding of myself.
3. I want to get to a point where I feel as at home in the natural world as I do in my house
4. I want to acknowledge and honor the sacred in all things.
5. I am questing for a vision, for myself and my tribe.
6. I want to lose myself into something that is too big to imagine.
7. I want to recontextualize myself; to discover who I am on the trail, in such an intimate relationship with Nature.
8. I want to feel a part of a community.
9. A long trail is something I’ve wanted to do since I read Lord of the Rings.
10. I want to feel what it’s like to be in the best shape I’ve ever been in.

“If I succeed in thru-hiking the AT…”:

1. I’ll have validated myself; proving I can stay committed to a goal.
2. I’ll be filled me up with stories/songs
3. I’ll experience a more intense connection with the muse.
4. I’ll understand others more in a deeper way.
5. I’ll bring myself back to my family whole and healed and committed to them.
6. I’ll be more comfortable in my skin.
7. I’ll experience in the highest level of fitness, ever.
8. I’ll have broken the cycle of consumer addiction.

“If I give up on the AT,…”:

1. I’ll never know if I could have done it.
2. I’ll always wonder “what if…”
3. I’ll have to go back to work. ;^)

Well, it’s a start! ;^)