Date: 2010-08-17
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

It's been over two weeks since I have been on trail now.Summiting Katahdin is a strange experience. After spending five months moving towards a goal, it had come, and it was reached, and then it was over. I believe the trail managed to bring forth every imaginable human emotion during the course of a thru-hike. Joy, anger, relief, frustration, pain, sadness, happyness, boredom, excitement, all of it. When you finally take those last steps, it all manages to hit at one time in a paradoxical way. You're ready to go home, you wish you could keep hiking, you're proud, you're humble, you're happy and sad. It was a great feeling, but it was also a bizarre one. Five months of trail life and friendships, and now you're on your way back down the mountain to meet your parents when you will then jump into their car and be whisked away back home (roughly 1000 miles of trail worth) in a single day. And nobody, no matter how interested they are, really will ever understand what it is you're trying to explain to them (besides the other thru-hikers you have known).After the final climb, Mouse, Moonpie, Doozy, Pine, and myself all met with our respective families at a cabin nearby owned by Mouse's uncle for food and drinks. It was an excellent way to cap off the event, and begin to phase back into, well back into a different lifestyle.Spent two days after that on the Maine coastline with my parents. It was nice being with them. I rarely am, anymore. And then, I was back home. Back to the same house I was raised in, back to my childhood bedroom, and back to a real bed.I had heard that it was not uncommon for thru-hikers to become depressed or a little blue upon leaving the trail. I didn't figure much of it, but to be honest, I didn't know what to do with myself. Suddenly there were no miles to walk. No mountains to climb. I lived within the confines of four walls. Each day began and ended in the same place. The truth was, I was not happy being back in the comforts of home. I slept more than I used to, but it never felt of equal quality. I no longer could lay down with the confidence that I would fall soundly asleep within moments. Without the constant physical exercise I felt drained of the usual energy I had had.On top of that, my best friend has recently shipped out to boot camp with the Navy. I'm glad he went, and I wish him the best, but it left me without many people to hang out with around home. So, I decided that the best course of action was to get my things together (trust me, it's only a few things), and move on down to Delaware, get set up, and get a job. That way, I'd be forced to have something to do, and I'd have a couple more friends around. So, that's what I did. Within a week of being home, I was gone again. Moved to Newark, DE, got a job the next day, and have been working nearly daily since. Between moving, fixing up the house, work, and the few friends that are here for the summer, I've kept relatively busy, and I must say I feel more comfortable with my situation. I can say, however, that I don't ever want anyone to use the phrase "real world". That notion has bothered me since I first heard it was a child, but after five months of living at the mercy of the elements simply taking each day moment by moment, to have some cubicle worker mention the "real world" to me, is simply ludicrous. I'm not certain what that phrase is truly meant to describe, but I am rather certain that I know a couple of things concerning the reality of our planet....