Date: 2008-05-13
To: Applicable Literature
Miles today: 0.0

This past week I made a visit to Barnes and Noble to see what kind of literature I could get randomly sucked into purchasing. I stumbled upon a book that couldn't have come at a better time in my life called "20 Something 20 Everything- A Quarter Life Woman's Guide to Balance and Direction". I read the back cover and flipped through it's contents and was immediately hooked. I highly recommend it to any female in their twenties who's trying to figure out this thing called adulthood (for the guys reading this, the author has a similar book titled "The 20 Something Manifesto" that is not female specific). Anyway, a segment from the chapter Securing Your Independence jumped out at me and I thought I'd share it below:   "The twenties have a natural progression, and we need to just let it unfold, as uncomfortable as it might be. We need to stop feeling that we must find all the answers at once. Understanding that we are in a transition period is a critical part of securing our independence; this time teaches us how to take care of ourselves and offers us the freedom to just "be". How many of us give ourselves such a chance? We simply need to give ourselves the gift of time on our own.   As we transition into womanhood, we also need to be gentle with ourselves. Maybe if we gave ourselves permission to relax and discover who we are rather than immediately defining ourselves. The phrase "twenty-something crisis" can be replaced by something more appealing, such as "twenty-something awakening."*****************************************************************************Needless to say, I felt as though I could relate. :-) Maybe that's what I can coin my thru-hike, my Twenty-Something Awakening. Also, I purchased another book called "Hike Your Own Hike- 7 Life Lessons Learned Backpacking Across America". It combines the story of the authors AT with metaphors than can be applied to life off trail. Combine Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" with Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and you've got the jist of this book. I've just started it, but so far, I'm impressed and enjoying it. And lastly, I just ordered a movie off of Amazon called Southbounders. It's a full length feature film, the first fictional movie to be made about AT thru-hikers. The storyline is about a college aged female who is overwhelmed with the pressure her family (and society) is putting on her to be "successful" upon graduating from college so she sets out to hike the AT solo, from South to North (only 5% of hikers go this direction-definitely a metaphor for the movie). From reviews and the trailer it looks really good and I'm excited to watch it. I think you can rent it from Netflix for anyone who may be interested and uses Netflix. With all of these new books, I think I'll be kept busy for the next little while. Unfortunately, I head into the field for two weeks for work where there is no time to do any personal reading. Lastly, I'd like to give a shout out to my good friend John Paul down in Atlanta who has offered me a place to stay before I start my hike. Consider yourself my very first trail angel, JP! :-)